Energy Unbound
by Weldon Kenfield
Summary: Post Heroes of Olympus. Percy and Annabeth are attending college in New Rome and a time of peace has begun. But in a period of under 10,000 years, two major Primordials had to be put down and Titan and Giant wars happened twice each, perpetuated with the help of a third major Primordial. That kind of trauma turned Earth into a beacon of disorder. And someone's here to fix it.
1. CH01 - The New Half-Blood

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 01**

 _The New Half-Blood_

It was a bright summer day. Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson leaned against the tree on Half-Blood hill, arms around each other. They sat facing the camp, watching the campers engage in their daily activities. Neither of them were still campers, for after Gaea rose and the Seven defeated her, the couple had bought a home together in New Rome and were attending the college there. It seemed an era of peace had finally arrived. As classes were off for the Summer, they'd come back to camp to see some of their younger friends.

"It's nice, isn't it?" Annabeth sighed, shaking her boyfriend out of his thoughts.

"What's nice?" Percy asked, being his usual oblivious self.

She laughed and turned her face up to meet his. He loved her laugh, the way it made him tingle inside. "The summer day, Seaweed Brain. What else?" she replied with a smile.

"Oh yeah, it sure is. Wouldn't be the same without you though," Percy said, hugging his girlfriend tighter.

Another musical laugh rang out from Annabeth. "You're getting better at the complimenting, Percy," she smirked.

Percy just shrugged and smiled. "Having an awesome girlfriend does that."

Annabeth blushed and pulled him down into a deep kiss. When they could breathe again, she asked with a smile "Awesome girlfriend, huh?"

"Yep. Definitely," Percy said.

"Better be," she said lightly punching him in the arm.

"Ouch," he muttered, and was about to say more when Annabeth pulled him in for another kiss. "Feel better?" she asked mischievously.

Percy had a giant grin on his face. "Maybe a couple more would fix it," he said with a sly tone.

"Don't push your luck, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth replied with a mock scowl.

"Whatever you say, Wise Girl," Percy said, then drew her in for another kiss.

When they drew away, Percy was looking right into her swirling, storm grey eyes. They had captivated him since he arrived at Camp Half-Blood and she met him in the Big House. He never got tired of seeing them.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing. I just love looking at your eyes."

"Same here," she said, setting her head down in his lap again. "Think it'll be this peaceful for a while?" Annabeth asked, a sad tone on her voice.

Percy laughed. "Not likely. Another primordial will decide mortals are worth wiping out, or another prophecy will occur, or the gods will steal something from each other again," he said with slight resentment in his tone.

"It's not our problem anymore, Percy," Annabeth assured him, "The new generation will have to handle it. We've got a life to build."

"Together," Percy said, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Together," she agreed, and clasped his hand in hers.

The couple sat that way for the rest of the day, just resting in each other's company, and watched the sunset together.

-LB-

"Now where is that bloody camp?" A girl asked, walking alone through a forest. She looked around, trying to get a glimpse of the giant pine tree she was told to look for. "Go to New York, Ari. Find Long Island Sound, Ari. Look for a giant pine tree, Ari," she grumbled. "You can't miss it or the PHANTOM SUMMER CAMP next to it, Ari!" the girl, apparently named Ari, yelled, shaking her fists at the sky.

"Goddess comes into my life, tells me she's my long lost mother, and sends me on a wild tree chase," Ari said, disdain relevant in her expression. "Couldn't just teleport me there, oh noooo. That would be 'too easy'. Make me find it in the middle of the woods on my own." The girl turned to the heavens. "Super helpful, all-powerful mom! Thanks for the useless advice!" she yelled and shook her fist at the sky.

Ari turned back to the glowing piece of paper in front of her. One of her 'gifts' from her mom. Did the piece of paper have a map on it? No. Just one word written in orange text: "Forward". The near useless guide she'd been given only rotated around her, hovering in midair and pointed in the direction she had to travel. "Ever heard of Google Maps, millennia old deities?" Ari muttered under her breath. Thankfully, she had, and had her phone out in front of her to keep from getting lost.

Another half hour of travelling and the paper suddenly changed the message. "Good luck," it read, before curling up and disappearing into flames. In front of her was a tall hill with a lone, very big pine tree on top. "Can't miss it. Right," she muttered, "hilarious." Ari walked up the hill, somewhat excited her journey into insanity might finally be at an end.

Whatever she was expecting of a 'training ground for the children of the gods', this place did not deliver. A relatively normal, though large, blue farmhouse stood in the middle of a large swath of field on the other side of the hill, and beyond that were several clusters of buildings. The only things that looked out of place was the cabins, obviously arranged in a Greek Omega symbol, and several other buildings constructed to look very Greek, including what might have been an eating pavilion if the roof wasn't missing. And the dragon standing next to the tree, staring at her.

It took a couple of seconds, but then her brain processed that last bit. "Holy crap, a dragon!" Ari screamed, summoning her favorite weapon to defend herself. A low hum could be heard for a second, then a gun with a large barrel appeared in her hands.

The gun was made of a dark metal with orange glowing lines inlaid everywhere. Her mom had demonstrated the ability to summon nearly any object she could imagine made of the material that Ari had jokingly called Forcium, much to her mother's amusement. She had no idea why it was amusing, but never felt the urge to ask. Why a goddess would find something amusing was probably beyond Ari's comprehension.

Nonetheless, her mother had then taught her how to use the ability, and told her to summon a weapon to defend herself on the way to this camp. Apparently demigods had a strong scent that attracted monsters, and yes they were real. Something about the nature of her mother made Ari only attract very powerful monsters, as weaker ones would be too afraid. Despite continued pestering, her mother never told her why this was. Ari assumed it was because her mom was way more powerful than she said she was, but she couldn't pull the information out of thin air, and when asked, her mom had cut her off with a 'this discussion is over' look.

Ari gave up and promptly summoned her gun, based off a design she had seen on a TV show. A look of shock had gone over the goddess' face for a second, then replaced with her normal expression. She asked Ari why not a sword or a spear, perhaps a bow? In response Ari simply aimed the gun at a wall and left a 3 foot hole straight through it. That ended the discussion promptly, offering Ari a little bit of revenge for the goddess's earlier silence. Her trip to camp was thusly trailed by lots of golden dust piles, previously monsters that had attacked Ari and received gaping holes in their chests.

This was the weapon the girl now aimed at the dragon, neither moving to engage the other. After a few seconds of stalemate, Ari wondered why she wasn't lizard food. She was too smart to believe that a _dragon_ was afraid of her gun. So she looked at the dragon's stance, and more importantly _where_ it was standing. Behind the tree, _inside_ what could easily be the camp line, if they had one. Sighing in relief, she returned the gun to wherever objects went when she summoned them, and walked over to pet the dragon.

"You're just the guard, aren't you?" Ari asked, petting the dragon's snout. The dragon purred affectionately, nodding it's head up and down. The girl let out her remaining adrenaline, worry melting away. "So do I have to do anything special to get into this camp or what?"

The dragon looked her in the eye in a way that Ari somehow understood as meaning 'Just get here alive'. She gulped. How many demigods hadn't?

The dragon huffed, then laid down next to the tree. Ari spotted a wool blanket laid over one of the giant tree's roots, glowing gold. _That's not even close to weird after meeting a real dragon,_ she thought. Catching her breath, Ari slowly stepped over the imaginary boundary line. And was suddenly looking into the face of Santa Claus, sans white hair and beard. And he looked mad.

"Uh, hello," she said to the randomly appearing guy. "Who are you?"

The man glared at her, looking over her like she was a threat. "I'm the director of this camp," he said with a bored tone, "Lord Dionysus."

"What, like the god of wine?" Ari scoffed.

Dionysus' eyes were replaced with purple fireballs and he scowled. "Yea, twerp. Exactly like that."

The girl's eyes widened, and Dionysus was sure he'd scared her to madness. He was quite shocked when she simply said "That's cool."

The god looked at the demigod in bewilderment. "You're not frightened?"

Ari laughed. "Frightened of the god of parties and booze? Pfft, nah. Would much rather get settled in, I've been walking for hours."

"Not even a little bit?" he pouted.

"Nah. Sure, you have godly powers and could smite me any time you wished, but you won't. People like you don't do that."

"There are no people like me," the god growled.

The girl looked at him like he was the one who was crazy. "Of course there are. Everyone has one."

Dionysus' confused look prompted her to elaborated.

"Everyone has a father figure. Now can I go?" she said.

Too stunned to try and intimidate the girl further, the god just nodded and pointed to the big blue house. She thanked him and began to walk down the hill. Dionysus just stood there, speechless. Not even Percy Jackson had treated him that way. This girl trusted him. Before the god of wine could process what just happened, she turned around and told him one last thing that would leave him standing there all night.

"If my trouble coming here is any indication, the demigods here need a dad. Hope you can take that job."

Dionysus just nodded with a blank stare, and the girl went down the hill to the house.

-LB-

The porch was lit by a solitary lantern, positioned above a large wooden door. On the way here from the hill, Ari swore she had seen a few women with bird wings. _Harpies._ Shaking off a shudder, the girl walked up the few steps to the porch and knocked on the door. Nothing happened for a good half minute, so she knocked on it again. This time the clatter of horse hooves could be heard from inside, along with some muttering. _Guess whoever owns this house was asleep,_ thought Ari.

She heard a bolt sliding open, then the handle turned. The large door opened, and the girl was standing face to face with a middle-aged man, quite handsome in appearance. He looked wisened beyond his years, and though his face told of his unhappiness at being woken, his eyes conveyed nothing but kindness. And he was riding a horse.

"Excuse me, but why are you riding a horse inside a house?" Ari asked him.

The man peered at her oddly and asked "How did you get into the camp, child?"

"I walked down the hill," she replied, pointing to said hill.

"If that is true, you must be a demigod," he said.

Ari blinked. "Yeah, of course I am. Why are you riding a horse?"

The man raised an eyebrow and said "You should come in."

Unsure of what to do, the girl complied with his request. And promptly dropped her jaw once her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. The man was definitely _not_ riding a horse.

"You're a... You're a... You're a centaur," Ari stammered.

"I am Chiron, young one," the centaur replied, nodding his head.

Ari glared upward and crossed her arms. "You're hilarious, you know that?"

Puzzled, Chiron wondered who she was talking to. He momentarily looked up, saw nothing but the ceiling, and looked back down at the demigod.

"To whom are you speaking, may I ask?"

Ari scoffed and waved her hand dismissively. "Just telling off my mom. No biggee."

Chiron's eyes widened. "You know who your godly parent is?"

"Sort of," she replied, "I've met her. Do I know who she is? No, she neglected to tell me that. Just sent me here," Ari finished, glaring up once again.

"It is not wise to taunt the gods, young one," warned Chiron.

"You mean it's not wise to taunt the _Olympians,_ " she corrected. "Thankfully, my mom is _not_ an Olympian, so I can tell her off if I care to."

Ari sighed, but before Chiron could respond, she held out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Ari, pleased to meet you."

Never having met a demigod arrival already this confident, he merely took the offered handshake.

"What do you mean, she's not an Olympian?" Chiron asked.

"Pretty sure it means she's not bound to Olympus or Zeus," Ari shrugged, "at least that's what she told me."

"Your mother might be a minor goddess then. Most of them are not bound to the laws of Olympus."

Ari scratched the back of her head. "That's the conclusion I almost came to as well. But what I encountered on my way here says otherwise."

Chiron looked intrigued. "Go on."

Ari held up her left hand, fingers outstretched, and began ticking them off. "I had to kill six hydra, something over forty snake women with two tails, easily two hundred harpies, most of which attacked me in gangs, and no less than two giants."

The centaur nearly fell over. "How are you still alive?" Chiron asked, gazing at her in amazement.

"Frankly? Pretty sure the attacks and my survival are because of who my mom really is," she replied.

When Ari realized Chiron was waiting for her to continue, she scoffed. "I don't know who she is, obviously. That's part of why I came straight here. Was hoping someone could fill me in."

"Part of why?" Chiron asked.

"Yes, I'm also supposed to talk to you directly. My mom gave me a message for you," Ari clarified.

"What is the message?"

"She gave me explicit instructions to quote 'Ask to speak to him in a secure area' unquote"

"Hmm," Chiron muttered, "follow me. My office should be secure enough."

"Thanks."

Chiron turned around and walked further into the house. They passed two doors, one containing something like a kitchen, the other a sort of living room/medical ward hybrid.

"A medical ward?" Ari asked the centaur, "do people here get hurt often?"

Chiron paused, looking sadly at the doorway. "Far too often for my liking," he sighed, "some don't recover."

Ari gulped and they continued on in silence. A hallway appeared on the right, and Chiron turned into it, opening the first door on the right. They entered the office, and the centaur went behind his desk, where a rather peculiar wheelchair was sitting. He backed up and somehow his horse half compacted into the wheelchair, leaving a rather shocked Ari staring at him. Now he just looked like a disabled professor, not the half horse he really was.

"You said you had a message for me, Miss Ari?" Chiron asked, jolting her out of her stupor.

Shaking her head and writing her face, she summoned a small orb of Forcium, which her mom had told her was basically a recording and playback device.

Chiron stared at her, shock evident on his face.

"What?" Ari asked.

"How did you do that?"

Ari looked from Chiron to where his eyes pointed, the small ball in her hands, then back to him several times before it dawned on her. "Oh, summoning? It's one of the powers passed to me from my mom."

"No demigod I've met can materialize items from thin air," the centaur responded wearily.

"Really?" Ari asked, clocking her head to the side, "I must be pretty unique then, because that's not the only thing I can summon."

She placed the orb down on his desk, then summoned her gun. Unlike with the orb, the air hummed, and then the gun popped into existence in her hands. "Cool, huh?"

"What is that?" Chiron asked in wonder.

Ari merely stared at him dumbfounded. "It's a gun. Duh.'

He raised his eyebrows. "You can summon weapons?"

"Not just weapons," Ari said, dismissing the gun. It faded away with a hum before she focused on making something else. "Anything I can imagine, if it can be made with this metal, I can summon it," she finished, placing a small statuette of the centaur on his desk. "Though summon doesn't seem to be the right word for it, since nothing I create goes away unless I explicitly will it to stop existing."

Chiron's eyes were wide as dinner plates now. "That's the power of creation. Only gods have that ability." He looked at her suspiciously, as if suspecting her to be one.

Ari quickly corrected that assumption. "Sad to say it, but I'm definitely mortal. I get sliced, I bleed. Very red blood. No ichor here. Though there is something peculiar about me in that regard."

Ari quickly summoned a knife with a small hum, and proceeded to cut a gash in her hand to the horror of the centaur. He began to get up, but Ari stopped him with a wave of her knife hand, then held up the cut palm. What used to be a giant red wound had sealed itself to little more than a scratch, and that was quickly fading. The only evidence she had ever been cut was the blood on the centaur's desk, and even that seemed to be disappearing.

Chiron looked at her with incredulity. "How?"

Ari shrugged, then tossed the knife in the air. It vanished with the same hum it had appeared with. "No idea. Mortals call it 'spontaneous regeneration', but no mortal doctor has ever figured out how I do it."

"Well then. Maybe we could get some Apollo kids on it, they might be able to find out."

She shrugged again. "If it helps more people, uh, 'recover from their injuries', I'd be glad to help," she said with a smile. Ari readjusted her shirt, then cleared her throat. "However, all of this is very off task. We have a message to see, don't we?"

The centaur looked at her with confusion. "We?"

"I haven't seen it either."

"Ah, Yes. Let's see the message."

"Alright then," she said, and lightly double tapped the orb. It began to glow orange and rise into the air, hovering at their eye level. In front of both of them, an image of a woman with crimson hair and orange eyes faded into existence. The woman looked up, staring into both their eyes.

"Hello Chiron," she said, "I see you've met my daughter."


	2. CH02 - Fitting In, Uniquely

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 02**

 _Fitting In, Uniquely_

"My Lady," Chiron said, respectfully bowing to the image of the Ari's mom.

"Chiron, it's just a message," Ari sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "No need to be formal."

Much to her surprise, the image of her mom scowled. "Now Ari, did you really believe I'd trust your hand off to a simple message?"

Ari jumped out of her chair. "Ow!" she yelped, rubbing the side of her head that hit the floor, "Mom! That was not funny!"

Ari's mom had a giant smirk on her face. "It was amazingly funny. Chill out, dear."

Ari glared in response.

Chiron watched the exchange in bewilderment. "Pardon me, My Lady, but who exactly are you?"

The goddess held out a hand, and a glowing orange spiral flashed into existence. Chiron's eyes grew wide, his face paler than a ghost.

"You recognize that symbol, Chiron?" Ari asked, finally sitting on her chair again.

The centaur seemed unable to respond, but there was utter fear in his eyes. Ari rolled her eyes and turned to her mom. "Alright mom, you going to fill me in?"

"No need. You already know everything you need to. You just... forgot it for a while," the goddess replied, then held her other hand out to her daughter. "Take my hand and your memory will be unlocked."

Ari stared suspiciously at the image of her mom. "Did you do something to me?" she asked, arms crossed.

"Locking your memories was necessary, or the Olympians would have been alerted to your presence," she explained with an impatient expression.

"The gods can smell memories?" Ari asked in disbelief.

"Not necessarily, but that's the easiest way to explain it. Now get over here, young lady," the goddess demanded.

The girl stuck her tongue out, but nonetheless uncrossed her arms and brought her hand to touch the holographic hand of her mom. As soon as their hands touched, Ari felt like an electric jolt had shot through her entire body. She got an ear-splitting headache, and let out a scream. Power coursed through her veins, filling a void she had no idea existed. The fog in her mind she hadn't noticed before seemed to be lifting, and within the fog lay impossibilities. Truths about her and her mother, what they both really were, the extents of their existence. The state of the universe at large, information on so many other worlds. But most importantly, what the presence of one of them on this planet meant.

Ari stared wide eyed at her mother, for she could not call the woman a goddess anymore and be factually correct. The existence they shared was so much larger than that.

"Mother, why am I here? Don't you usually handle this?"

By this time, Chiron had recovered and was staring at the two of them with a very grim expression. Ari raised her eyebrow at him, but only got a shaken head in response.

"Looks like the lock opened correctly. Good. Sorry about the pain, dear," her mother apologized. "As for your question, yes. I handled the last three. But this time is different; it's not only the gods that will be affected. Their children are too involved to exclude them, but they would never tell their side of the story to a deity," she explained.

"You want me to befriend them, get their side of this fiasco," Ari stated, more a conclusion than a guess.

"Yes. They will trust another demigod. Join the camp, fit in, become a part of their family. Reveal to them what you are when you feel the time is right."

"Isn't that using them, though? Lying to them like that?"

Her mother nodded her head glumly. "Unfortunately yes, but it must be done. They deserve that much," she sighed

Ari raised her brow at this. "Why do you care what they deserve? You didn't before," she said, crossing her arms.

A pained expression dawned on the image of her mother's face. "You've been asleep for a long time, Ari. Things have changed."

The girl looked bewildered. "You never change."

"I have, you must accept that. Contact Hestia, she was my confidant the last time. This system is now under your domain."

Ari nodded, despite still not believing it. "What about my previous... encounters? Should I contact them, warn them about what's happening?"

"That's your prerogative. I'd recommend Chronos at least, you know how pissed he can get when he's left out. The Norse are busy with that Magnus kid, try not to bother them. I trust you will make the right decisions, my daughter."

And with that, the image faded, the comm ball stopped glowing, dropping back down to the desk, and the girl and the centaur were left staring at each other.

For several minutes they sat in silence, neither breaking eye contact. Finally Chiron seemed to gather his wits. "So, My Lady, what exactly are you doing here?"

Ari glared at him. "Cut the My Lady crap, Chiron. I'm supposed to fit in. Won't be able to do that if you address me as anything else than a demigod."

"But you're not-," he began to protest.

"You are to treat me like anyone else at this camp, do I make myself clear?" Ari asked, a dangerous look on her face.

Chiron gulped. "Yes."

She nodded, then grabbed the comm ball off the desk and pocketed it. Standing up, she began to walk to the door before remembering to ask something important.

"Chiron, where should I sleep?" Ari asked, looking back at him.

The centaur blinked, wondering why she needed to sleep at all. _Oh, right, fitting in._ "Down the hall to the left there are a couple of guest rooms. Feel free to retire to one. We will get you situated in the Hermes cabin in the morning."

The girl nodded, then decided to answer his earlier question. She paused at the door, her right arm leaning against the frame. "The reason I'm here is because in a period of under ten thousand years, two major Primordials had to be put down and Titan and Giant wars have occurred twice each. Those wars were perpetuated with the help of a third major Primordial. That kind of trauma and betrayal turned Terra into a beacon of disorder, drawing the attention of my mother." She turned back to him, a very grave look on her face as if she dreaded what she would do in the coming months. "I'm here to fix the problem."

Leading a stunned centaur behind, Ari left the office and headed to the guest room.

Before she turned the corner, Chiron swore he'd seen a small cut on the arm she'd leaned against the doorframe, healing rapidly. He resigned that it was just a trick of the light, for the other possibility was too hard to believe.

After all, not even Chaos had silver blood.

-LB-

Dawn came to Camp Half-Blood, the sun slowly overtaking the darkness of the night. Sensing the warm rays of Apollo's chariot, dryads emerged from their trees, smiling at each other and the beauty of the forest around them. Naiads swam from their underwater homes to frolic on the surface, splashing and playing as they always did. Most of the demigods were still asleep, but the early risers like the Apollo and Hermes cabins were already alight with activity. Apollo kids could rarely sleep past dawn, as they rose when their father did, and Hermes kids always had too much energy anyways. Yells of anguish or annoyance could be heard from within. The only other cabin with conscious occupants was Athena's, but unlike the hectic chaos present in the other two cabins, they were reading books.

It was this sight which met Ari when she exited the Big House, as she had learned was it's name. Chiron led her across the field separating the House from the rest of camp, and trotted towards the Hermes cabin in silence. About halfway there, she got fed up.

"Why so silent, Chiron?" Ari teased.

Chiron hid it well, but he was startled. To his credit, after his hooves had resumed their normal rhythm he had a solid tone to his words. "I am still getting used to treating one such as yourself like the others here," he replied with a gruff voice, "doing so is not in my nature."

Ari walked quickly to get in front of him. Once she did, she stopped moving, twirled around to face the centaur, and crossed her arms. "Chiron, I'm not any different from the demigods here."

Chiron had a predictably incredulous look on his face.

"What I mean is, despite what I may be or what my abilities are, my memories depict a normal mortal life before now. One where I did not know my mother," Ari clarified.

"Didn't your mother 'unlock' your true memories, though?" Chiron asked, puzzled.

Ari ran a hand through her long hair. "Yes, but they're not my only memories, if that makes sense. I've got two lives in my head."

The centaur had a 'Please continue' look.

She sighed in exasperation. "Facts, figures, knowledge comes from my true memories. But my personality seems to be built upon the mortal life," Ari explained.

Chiron looked worried. "Does that not bother you? That you are basically a different person?"

Ari visibly shuddered, remembering what the previous version of her did for fun. "No."

"No? Most beings would have said yes."

Ari glared right at him, more in fear than in anger. "Trust me, if you knew what past me has done... Well, suffice it to say, this world probably wouldn't be here anymore if past me still existed."

Chiron's eyes widened, but he nodded and stopped asking.

They stood there a a few minutes, nervously looking at each other. Eventually Ari got antsy, and started off towards the cabin she guessed to be Hermes's. Chiron did not follow, seeming too unnerved to be around her right now. Which was fine with her; he'd come around eventually. It was just a lot to take in.

As she approached Cabin Eleven, Ari took in the mismatched architecture of them all. Cabins One and Two were on opposite sides of the Greek Omega symbol that the cabins made up, and were equally as dull as each other. They were entirely composed of white marble, with more columns than necessary and construction that screamed _Greek Temple._ Cabin three seemed to easily break the mold, since it looked like a sea shack blown up to the size of a normal house and smelled like the ocean. Undoubtedly Poseidon's cabin.

Ari kept looking at the various cabins, her legs continuing on autopilot to Cabin Eleven. She was so enthralled by them that she didn't notice when she walked up the stairs and promptly hit the door of Eleven with her face with a loud _BANG_.

"Son of a brick!" Ari cursed, rubbing the side of her head. She hopped around, trying to accelerate the healing process. She may heal fast, but pain still registered. Her hopping made loud thumping sounds on the wooden deck, so if nobody knew she was there after implanting the door, they did now.

That person opened the door just then to see what the commotion was. He blinked and pinched himself when his eyes saw a crimson haired, very attractive girl in jeans and a sweatshirt cursing up a storm and hopping around rubbing the side of her face.

Ari noticed his presence and expression, and immediately tried to right herself. Unfortunately she did this mid-hop, so she landed on the deck on her butt. As if she wasn't already embarrassed enough. Her face, already red from physical exertion, turned a bright pink.

"Um... You okay?" the boy asked, looking at her with confusion.

"Yeah, I think so," Ari lamented, getting up and brushing off her pant legs. "Just eternally embarrassed."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Who are you and what do you want?" he asked with a smile.

Ari extended her hand to shake. "Ari, 18, Unclaimed."

"Travis Stoll, age unimportant, Son of Hermes," the boy responded with a smirk, accepting the offered shake. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood!"

"Thanks for the welcome Travis, but I actually arrived last night," Ari said, sticking her thumb over her shoulder at the Big House. "Chiron let me stay in a guest room until morning."

"Where is the old horse?" Travis asked, looking around behind her. "Unclaimed people are usually dropped off here by him or someone else."

Ari crossed her arms. "I can take care of myself, so I walked myself."

"Ah. Well, come in! Meet everyone" Travis said, gesturing the the open door as he stepped to the side.

"Thanks," she said, nodding to the boy's over acted chivalry. "Just don't start holding doors open for me."

"Anything you wish, My Lady," he teased, bowing and twirling his hand theatrically. This caused him to receive a light punch on the arm, to which he just stuck his tongue out.

Ari shook her head and went inside, Travis following and closing the door behind him. The inside was okay as cabins go. There were bunks on the walls each with a chest next to them, doors for restrooms, and sleeping bags on the floor. A large door to what must have been a closet stood off the entryway.

She wasn't impressed. "So, am I to just grab a bunk?" she asked nobody in particular.

"Nope!" yelled another boy who had popped out of nowhere. He looked identical to Travis, probably a twin. But startling Ari was not a good idea, something they would both become very aware of quite quickly.

She was a blur of motion, and with a hum had her gun summoned, the boy pushed up against the wall with her hand around his neck, and a cold look in her eyes, which were rapidly scanning his face. The gun continued to hum, several rectangles on the barrel glowing with orange energy. All of this happened in under a second, leaving a shocked Travis and his twin with fear in his eyes. The other children of Hermes looked on in horror, several dropping items they'd been carrying.

Another few seconds and Ari realised no threat was present. Sighing in relief, she unsummoned the gun, took her hand off the boy's neck, and let the friendly appearance her eyes normally held return. "Sorry. You startled me," she explained to the twin.

"No kidding," he croaked. "I'd say nice to meet you, but now..."

Even Travis looked a little offput. "Remind us not to prank you, ever," he whistled, "you can be scary, Ari."

The twin looked at his brother. "Scary Ari. New nickname?" he said with a gleeful look, getting over the fear rather quickly for Ari's tastes.

"No," she commanded, glaring at them before Travis could respond.

They both looked crestfallen. "Aww."

Travis spoke up. "Ari, meet Connor Stoll, my brother and partner in crime."

Connor fist bumped his brother. "Got that right!"

"Right, Hermes kids. God of thieves," Ari groaned, rubbing the bride of her nose.

"And messages, communication, and travelers!" the entire cabin piped up in sync, seeming to have said that many times before.

"Stealing my stuff would be a bad idea, guys," Ari warned.

They both gulped. "Got it." they said.

Connor's eyes lit up as he realized something. "Ari, how did you get a gun? And where did it go? It was a gun right?"

Sighing, she willed her gun to exist once again. A short hum and it popped into existence, one second not there and the next simply there. The Stoll's eyes went wide, clearly impressed.

"How can you do that?" Travis asked, astounded.

"One of my abilities from my parent," she replied, not keen on explaining.

"I've never seen a demigod with that ability before," Connor said, "who's your godly parent?"

Ari shrugged. "I'm Unclaimed," she half-lied. If the twins could detect the falsehood, they didn't let on.

"Can we hold it?" Travis asked, looking like a kid in a candy shop.

Ari rolled her eyes. "Boys and their toys," she muttered, getting appreciative glances from the girls in the cabin, but handed the gun over. As they were messing with it, she felt the urge to ask. "Are you twins?"

They looked at her with a bored expression. It occurred to the girl that they were probably asked that a lot. What she did not expect was the answer.

"Nope!" Connor exclaimed, "Travis is older than me."

Ari was confused. "But... You look identical!" she replied, waving her hands at each of them, exasperated.

"Same mom, same dad, barely enough time for Travis to be born to separate us," Connor said.

Ari screwed up her face trying to conceptualize how that worked. Seeing this, Connor went into further detail. "Hermes is a god, and the god of speed. Figure it out."

She did, and scrunched her nose in disgust. Before she could continue down _that_ line of thinking, her gun began to emit a loud hum. Her eyes grew wide, and she grabbed the handle, turning the business end away from Connor. An extremely loud, high hum rang out causing the ground to quake, and the front wall of the cabin disappeared in a giant flash of orange light so bright it momentarily turned to daylight inside the cabin. When the dust cleared, the Stolls and Ari were seen clinging to the literal smoking gun by everyone near the cabin looking at them in shock.


	3. CH03 - Something Blue

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 03**

 _Something Blue_

"Stolls!" Ari yelled, whacking each brother upside the head and taking back her weapon. She promptly unsummoned it. "What made you think it was a good idea to fire my gun!?"

They just looked at her with giant smiles. "That. Was. AWESOME!" they yelled, seemingly uncaring about the now missing part of their cabin. Their hair was blown back, giving them a very Einstein-esque look. "What kind of gun is that? I've never seen that before, where'd you get it? Can I have one?" the brothers rapidly asked, nearly overwhelming Ari's patience.

Ari hit her face with her palm so hard it left a red mark. "No. As demonstrated by what just happened, you cannot have one," she said, glaring at both of them, "either of you."

They pouted, looking a lot like puppies. Ari lost her patience. "YOU DESTROYED A WALL OF THE CABIN!" she yelled, causing many observers to lean back slightly. This new girl was scary when mad, it seemed. Everyone in the cabin quickly ran out in order to get some distance between them and the disaster their counselors had caused. Just in time, too.

"What happened here?" Chiron asked, having galloped up with a worried look on his face. The look turned to a scowl when he noticed the missing wall.

"These two geniuses," Ari said, pointing a thumb at both Stolls, "asked to see my weapon. After fiddling with it, they fired it at MAX POWER," she screamed the last bit. "Only they aimed it at themselves without noticing. I had to point it somewhere," she finished with a shrug.

Chiron glared at the Stolls, shaking his head with disappointment. "This will take days to repair. At least nobody was hurt," he sighed in relief. "What have I told you boys about messing with objects you don't understand?" the centaur scolded.

"To not do it," the brothers mumbled.

"Exactly. Now get to the Big House, you will have to explain this to Lord Hermes."

"Yes, Chiron," the Stolls said, eyes downcast. They'd lost their lighthearted demeanor from before, all the light give from their eyes. It sickened Ari to see then like that. She had to intervene.

"Hold up, Chiron," she called out. The centaur stopped leading the brothers away and looked at her. "Yes, Ari?"

Ari concentrated on what she wanted to make. _Mortals may only be baby steps into high technology, but damn if their theories aren't amazing_ , thought Ari with a smirk. A hum was heard, and a small ball of metal appeared in her hand. It was much larger than the comm ball, easily the size of a tennis ball, but had way less orange lines on it. She grinned, ready to show off.

"Yes, Ari?" Chiron repeated, crossing his arms in impatience. Ari noticed he was tapping his right hoof too. The crowd of demigods that had gathered watched her intently, some whispering about her, or wondering what had caused the damage to Cabin Eleven. After the blast from her gun, every cabin was up. You don't sleep through a mini earthquake, after all.

The nearly unanimous assumption was that the Stolls were responsible, but what they did was up for grabs. The few demigods that had witnessed the firing of her gun and the Hermes campers tried explaining, but were drowned out by the murmurs of 'they screwed up a prank ' or 'messing with Greek fire'. The smirk on Ari's face just grew wider.

Clearing her throat, she yelled "HEY!" at the crowd. Immediately every eye was on her again. Smiling sheepishly, she raised one hand and moved her fingers in a wave. "Hey, I'm new to camp, and this is partially my fault. The Stolls wanted to look at my weapon, I let them, they blew a hole in their cabin. Lesson learned: no weapons for the Stolls."

The crowd snickered, but a rather well built, large girl muscled her way to the front. She had light brown hair and brown eyes, but looked as if no matter who you were, wrestling matches would go in her favor. The girl spoke up with a rather deep, powerful tone.

"What kind of weapon can do this?" she asked, eyes filled with anticipation.

Ari smirked, putting the new ball on the ground. She summoned her gun, causing a wave of surprised gasps to come from her audience. Scowling, she turned the power dial down to a much safer level, then fired at the sky. Requiring much less power to fire at this lower level, the discharge was instant; a solid beam of light exited the gun barrel, streaming up into the clouds with a loud hum. The girl's eyes grew wide, a very happy look on her face, while the rest of the crowd including Chiron gaped. Even though it felt like eternity, the beam shut off after a good ten seconds of continuous firing, the capacitors in the gun completely drained.

A cheer rang out from the crowd, and a Latino kid with black hair, looking a lot like an elf complete with pointed ears yelled "Hell yes, an energy cannon!" The kid ran up to Ari and grabbed the gun from her hands, surprising her. Instead of reacting like she had with Connor, she saw the careful way the kid was examining everything, not touching the firing mechanism or anything remotely dangerous. _Meh, he can have it,_ she thought, _obviously a mechanic of some kind._

Ari turned back to the Hermes cabin, picking up the orb she'd dropped as she did so. "If you thought that was cool, watch this," she smiled over her shoulder, before double tapping the orb and throwing it at the cabin. It landed on the charred ground in front of where the wall used to be, then began to expand, the metal flowing outward like liquid. The kid who had taken her gun completely forgot about it, staring in excitement at the new thing. If Ari didn't know better, she'd assume he was her half brother.

The metal continued to flow, encasing the entire cabin. Once it was completely covered, a handprint appeared at ground level, glowing orange. The crowd looked to Ari, wondering what came next.

"Connor, put your hand on the print please," Ari told him. He looked a little wary to be near anything she created, and given he'd just helped vaporize his cabin's front wall she couldn't blame him. "Don't worry, this is Stoll-proof," she joked.

He smirked a little. "Hilarious, Ari," he said, before complying with her request. He walked up to the quivering mass of metal and placed his hand on the handprint. The metal then flowed around his hand and solidified. Naturally, he freaked.

"SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE! IT'S GOING TO EAT ME!" Connor yelled, and Travis ran to his brother trying to tug him out. Ari shook her head and began counting down, the crowd staring half at her, half at the Stolls, all in horror. When she reached zero, Connor's stance changed. "Woah," he exclaimed.

"What? What happened, bro?" Travis asked worried. Then he looked at his brother's eyes; they were glowing orange. Travis glared at Ari, then began to walk over. Connor's free hand shot out to grab him, and he shook his head at his brother.

"I'm fine, Travis. This is just a lot of information to process is all," he assured his brother.

Travis glared at Ari once more, but she just held up her thumb with a kind smile. Reasonably satisfied she wasn't trying to kill his brother, he turned back to Connor. "Information? What are you talking about?"

Connor mumbled something Ari couldn't hear.

"What are they talking about?" A young woman asked Ari. She had blonde hair and piercing gray eyes, but a kind motherly smile. Ari wasn't sure why, but she seemed highly intelligent, so she figured she would understand if told what was going on.

"Basically, Connor is fixing the cabin, and Travis flipped out because his eyes are glowing orange," Ari said, intentionally leaving out detail. Then something clicked in her head. _Gray eyes, blonde hair._ _Let's see if this girl is who I think she is._

True to what she heard, the girl did not leave it at that. "Explain," she said.

Ari smiled widely. It was her. "The metal you see is actually a mass of nanites," she explained, gesturing to the cabin sized metal blob. "Currently Connor is engaged in a direct brain to machine interface. His mental processes have been accelerated, the extra thinking power being hosted by the nanites themselves."

The girl's jaw dropped. "Not even Hephaestus has the technology to do that. Who's your godly parent, Ari?" the girl asked.

Ari shrugged. "Unclaimed," came the simple reply.

The blonde looked a little shocked. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Eighteen."

Now she looked pissed. "You're supposed to be claimed by now," she growled, glaring at the sky.

Ari raised her brow. "What do you mean?"

"The gods swore on the Styx. Percy turned down godhood so all demigods would be claimed by the age of twelve."

Understanding dawned on Ari's face, then a look of panic briefly appeared. "Uh… Is anyone going to make a big deal out of this?"

"Of course! If nobody holds the gods to their promises nothing will happen," the young woman said as if it was obvious.

Ari ran her hand through her hair nervously. "Can you maybe… not make a big deal of it?" she asked sheepishly.

The blonde's eyes widened. "You don't want to be claimed."

"Things that are in motion would be disrupted if I was, yeah."

She narrowed her eyes at this. "What things?"

"Can't say. Not yet. Don't worry though, it's not another war. Unless I'm discovered earlier than planned."

Crossing her arms, the blonde seemed a little peeved at being unawares of current events. "Do you swear on the Styx that there is not another war?"

"I swear on the Styx that unless I am exposed earlier than planned, no war will occur," Ari said. The usual crack of thunder was heard, but she glared at the sky and the thunder cut off rapidly.

The blonde didn't seem to notice. "Good enough."

"I'm guessing you're Annabeth, daughter of Athena," Ari spit out as if out of nowhere.

"Good guess. How'd you know?" Annabeth replied, a little startled at the rapid change of topic.

Ari extended her hand. "Your reputation precedes you."

The girl raised her brow, but accepted the handshake. "My reputation?"

"You're a bit of a legend to mortals. You and the rest of the Seven. Though seven isn't really the right number, is it?" Ari asked with a wink, waving her eyebrows.

Annabeth looked shocked, complete disbelief on her face. "How did you know?"

Ari grinned. "Told Percy yet?"

Annabeth sighed. "No, not yet. Soon though."

"As for how I knew, every being gives off energy. Mortals, demigods, gods. I can see that energy, and you've got three sources."

Annabeth gasped. "Three?" she nearly squeaked in glee.

Whoops. Ari looked guiltily at her. "Uh, maybe?"

Annabeth's face beamed.

"I guess it explains why you're so against another war though."

"You're right, Percy and I have gone through too much together. We're done fighting," Annabeth said, gazing wistfully off into space.

"Going to suck in a few months anyways," Ari said with a light chuckle.

"Too happy to care," Annabeth said, wearing a huge smile. Ari suddenly found herself in a tight hug with rapidly spewed "Thank you"s. Then the blonde rushed off, probably to find Percy. Ari smirked, congratulating herself on a job well done even if she'd revealed information too soon. From what she'd heard, Percy and Annabeth were good at keeping secrets.

"So this is fitting in, huh?" Chiron asked, approaching her with a taunting smile on his face.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "My version of it, yeah. Had to do some ad-lib since the Stolls killed their cabin."

"How long will this take? Demigods are not known for their patience," the centaur said.

Ari looked around at the crowd, and she could see the assorted kids, teenagers and young adults starting to fidget.

"Not long now," she said, and looked at her watch. "Should be about five seconds." She then started counting down on her fingers again. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."

On the count of zero, Connor's eyes stopped glowing and the metal mass freed his hand. He collapsed into his brother's arms, looking very tired but not much worse for wear. "Man, I've got a massive headache," he complained, looking his older brother in the eyes.

Travis laughed. "Your eyes were glowing, dude. Of course you've got a headache."

Ari walked up to them, lightly putting her hand on Travis's shoulder. "We need to stand back, guys," she warned.

"Ari's right, Travis. We gotta move," Connor said, trying to do so but only grunting miserably.

Travis looked to Ari, and silent communication seemed to occur. They both nodded their heads. Ari grabbed Connor's feet, while Travis picked his brother up by the shoulders. Together they carried him to the crowd, where a bunch of his friends began asking him questions.

"Quiet!" Ari shouted, causing the demigods to shut up. "Questions will be answered! Just watch the cabin."

"What cabin?" The wrestler girl from earlier asked. Just as Ari was about to respond, the metal blob rapidly lost cohesion with a slurping sound and melted to the ground in a giant puddle. The entirety of Cabin Eleven had disappeared, causing angry cries to ring out from the Hermes campers. Ari just watched along with Connor, since they both knew what was about to happen.

The puddle began to glow, lines forming out of the metal. And the lines were _rising_. It became evident that the lines were actually pieces of a cabin roof, swiftly being created as if from nothing. Following the roof was a building, much grander than the previous Cabin Eleven. The walls seemed to be made of silver metal, sparkling in the summer day. A giant caduceus, the symbol of power for Hermes, assembled itself intertwining around the caricature of a cell phone, similarly large.

The cabin kept rising, a huge wraparound porch extending out of the walls as if from nowhere. Steps materialized, leading up to the porch directly across from two silver doors that had just flowed into existence, the caduceus symbol etched on the doors, with a line down the middle where the doors met. Once the entire cabin was materialized, what little remained of the metal puddle seemed to crawl up the cabin walls and fade into the surface. The new Hermes Cabin looked like a hospital from the future, and nearly everyone was gaping at it.

"Holy shit," Wrestler Girl exclaimed. The sentiment was echoed across the entire crowd.

Ari high fived Connor, who was now able to sit up at least. "You've outdone yourself, Stoll," she smiled, clapping a friendly arm around his shoulders. He just nodded, staring at his handiwork in disbelief.

Chiron shot a look of approval at Ari, then addressed the gathered demigods. "Shall we go in?"

Nobody needed to be asked twice. There was a literal stampede as demigods rushed up the steps to enter the new cabin, with the mechanic kid at the front whooping loudly in joy. Ari heard him yell "just like Star Trek!" when the doors to the cabin slid open sideways into the walls with a hiss.

Travis looked at Ari, thanks written on his face. She shrugged again. "What can I say? When Chiron said you'd have to explain to your dad, you both looked so sad. Frankly, it was creepy. I had to do something."

Connor interrupted, a confused look on his face. "Where did everyone go?"

Ari looked around. The only people remaining were her, the Stolls, and Chiron. Everyone else had somehow gone into a cabin whose size could never hold them all. That's what he must be confused about.

"They're inside, of course," she replied, enjoying the face Connor made as his brain broke.

"But... What… Uh… How? There is no way they could fit inside."

"Connor, when you were designing the new cabin, didn't you notice that the interior was larger than the exterior?"

"Well, yeah, but I figured that was just perspective."

Ari shook her head. "Nope. The cabin is actually bigger on the inside."

Both Stolls and Chiron looked at her like she was crazy. "That's impossible," Travis said.

"When your highest level of technology is an automaton that uses clockwork, of course it is. My abilities deal with something called 'High Technology'. Nanotech, computers, quantum computing, energy weapons, force shields, advanced robotics, pocket universes. The stuff you see in mortal science fiction. I combine it with magic to create the ultimate blending of both strengths. In contrast, the highest tech the gods have is your dad's cell phone."

"Oh," the Stolls said.

"Can you walk, Connor?" Ari asked.

Getting to his feet, he nodded enthusiastically, even though everyone could see he was still worn out.

"Then let's join the others, shall we?" she said, walking up the steps. _Operation: Show Off accomplished,_ Ari thought with a giant grin.


	4. CH04 - Inside Out

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 04**

 _Inside Out_

They had stepped into a giant circular room, entirely made of the same silver metal that the cabin's exterior was constructed of. A caduceus was set in the floor with a slightly darker metal, giving the impression that it was engraved. In the center of each snake that twirled around the staff was a glowing line, green for the left snake and red for the right snake. On the edge of the chamber where the walls met the floor, a ring of blue light slowly faded in and out. The chamber had three hallways leading out in compass positions, with symbols above each entryway set in the metal similar to the caduceus in the floor. The one to the left of the cabin doors had a plus, directly across displayed a smaller caduceus and the one on the right flaunted a pair of winged shoes.

The main chamber had a domed roof, but starting above the hallways a half-transparent field of lights hovered. Every so often, a burst of light would leave one of the points of light and travel to another. Given the several thousand points of light, this was happening constantly.

Once the Stoll brothers were through the double doors of the new Hermes cabin, their mouths hit the floor. Chiron merely grunted in approval.

"Woah," Travis said, looking in awe at his brother. "Connor, you designed this?"

Connor nodded, not quite believing it himself. Ari chuckled, knowing perfectly well he hadn't designed it alone. She had a complete connection to all her technology, able to command it from afar. She had nudged Connor along, insisting on this aspect or that structure. He didn't know that though.

Ari then looked at the centaur in exasperation, remembering his lack of awe. "There's no truly impressing you, is there?"

The centaur looked around the giant chamber. "Olympus is much grander than this, but nevertheless both you and Connor must be congratulated on your work," he said, and Connor beamed. "However, since you and the Stolls caused the necessity of a new cabin, no points go to Gryffindor."

"Chiron, I didn't know you kept up with modern literature!" Connor exclaimed.

He looked offended. "I am not that old."

"Yes you are," Ari and the Stolls chorused.

Chiron gained a pained look on his face. "Please, Lord Zeus, not another one."

Ari grinned at her cabin mates, who grinned right back.

Suddenly a scream came from the right hallway. Ari leapt into action, leaving her companions behind and summoning another one of her guns. Flicking the setting to something a little higher than stun, she dashed down the very long hallway until it terminated in what amounted to a large gym. A huge room lay before her, filled with nearly every kind of workout machine that existed. Two more hallways extended from either end of the gym, symbols etched above them as well. The right one had a sword, the left simply two letters; VR.

Ari had no idea where the scream had come from, until it rang out again. The VR room. _Great, looks like someone doesn't understand virtual reality,_ she groaned, dashing across the gym at inhuman speeds. When she reached the entryway, she hesitated. Who knew what kind of program the demigods had accidentally triggered? Given their luck, it was probably 'Destroy all Demigods' set to the highest difficulty. Growling at their ineptitude, she concentrated on summoning her battle gear.

'Battle gear' for her consisted of literally every piece of clothing she wore being replaced by a skin-tight jumpsuit completely composed of Forcium. It fed off a miniature fusion reactor set in the middle of her back in order to keep moving, since it was basically a liquid metal suit. The reactor was also responsible for powering various functions of the suit. Her long crimson hair was drawn up into a ponytail, a Forcium ring materializing to hold it in place. Once she was sure it had all materialized, Ari ran into the hallway. Abruptly her vision shifted and changed, and she was standing at the top of the Coliseum, demigods in the stands rooting loudly for whoever was inside the actual arena. How she had heard only the screams of that one person was beyond her. Maybe the person was in actual danger and given that the cabin was attuned to her primarily, it would notify her if anyone was in danger within it's walls. _Great, random alarms are going to be a thing now,_ she complained.

She needed to get down to the ground floor. Given her combat suit was linked to her thoughts, what amounted to the boots of the ensemble immediately morphed thrusters on the bottom and she shot into the air with a loud boom, scaring the crap out of the demigods in front of her that had no idea she'd arrived. It only took a couple seconds at the speeds she was going to reach the arena floor, where she was met with a gruesome sight. Two demigods lay on the ground, giant gashes across their stomachs and blood pooling around their bodies, whilst a third demigod, that wrestler girl from earlier, was engaged in combat with what looked like five hydras, each with over a hundred heads each spitting poison at her.

Ari promptly brought her palm to her face. _Not hard difficulty, impossible difficulty,_ she internally groaned. The camp already knew about her weaponry abilities, so it's not like she was revealing anything truly _new_ , per say, if she was going to rescue Wrestler Girl. The "slain" demigods would just have to watch from their invisible positions for a while longer. They were probably panicking, but oh well.

She fired the thrusters on her feet and flew toward the hydra. En route two sword handles had formed around her hands, and as soon as she was within striking range they activated. Glowing orange swords erupted outwards, formed completely of the same energy her gun emitted. Wrestler Girl nearly dropped her own weapon, a simple Celestial Bronze broadsword. Ari smirked at her as she flew by, then promptly cut into one of the hydra's many necks. Instead of growing two more heads, glowing orange energy rapidly spread out from the wound, cracking the skin of the hydra as it went. When the hydra was covered in these cracks, it imploded, sucking into itself with green blood spraying everywhere. When it was the size of a basketball, it exploded into golden dust. This time Wrestler Girl did drop her sword.

"You want one?" Ari asked her, not even looking at the next hydra as she sliced it, causing another implosion.

"Hell yes!" she cried, watching in awe as a third hydra exploded.

"Toss me your sword!" Ari yelled, flying out of the way of a huge glob of hydra acid that hit where she'd been not a second before.

Wrestler Girl picked up her broadsword like it was a stick and tossed it, not expecting the twig of a girl to catch it at all. What a surprised look her face gained when Ari's suit seemed to shoot out like liquid and catch it, bringing it to rest on her back. Without a falter, she dispatched the remaining two hydra when she flew between them, hands outstretched. Her energy swords sliced through them at the same time, causing two perfectly timed implosions and explosions of golden dust. Turning around to look at Wrestler Girl, she plainly had a giant smirk on her face. The orange sword blades retracted, and her hands seemed to turn back to normal, despite still being encased in that strange metal.

Ari grabbed wrestler girl's broadsword from her back and had a good long look at it. The sword was rather elegant as giant monster killing devices went, patterns engraved along the blade and a boar's head at the hilt. She looked up to Wrestler Girl, nodded her approval, then closed her eyes and concentrated. She held the sword out in front of her, pouring her power into it. The metal began to heat up and liquefy, turning into a glowing hot ball of Forcium. Once the entire thing had been converted, she directed it to take it's previous shape. The ball reformed into the same sword, but the patterns and the boar's eyes glowed orange. Instead of a nose, the boar now had a button that could be pressed.

Once she was finished, she opened her eyes and looked at Wrestler Girl. The girl was crying. _What._ She had a huge smile on her face, so they must have been tears of joy. It was just a sword though. Not something to cry about.

"Hey, are you ok?" Ari asked, walking over to the girl to hand her new sword to her.

"I'm fine. It's just so beautiful," Wrestler Girl said, tentatively accepting the sword into her hands.

"What's your name, by the way? I didn't catch it outside the cabin," Ari asked her.

"Clarisse," she sniffed.

"Daughter of Ares?" Ari guessed.

"How'd you know?" Clarisse looked at her suspiciously.

Ari looked between Clarisse and the sword she was holding, a sarcastic look on her face. "You're crying for a sword," she pointed out.

"Oh, yeah. That obvious, huh?"

"Do you know any other demigods who'd cry over a sword?" Ari scoffed.

"No," Clarisse glared at her.

"Exactly," Ari said, grinning.

Clarisse just scowled at her before returning her attention to the sword. "What metal is this?"

"Forcium," Ari replied, "It's what all my stuff is made out of."

"Never heard of it."

"Not surprised."

Clarisse glared at her again. Ari merely stuck out her tongue. She could tell they were going to be the best of friends, especially since Clarisse chuckled shortly afterward.

"So, this thing got any tricks on it?"

"Well, the blade is now sharp enough to cut through anything living."

"What, really?" Clarisse asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but that's not the coolest bit," Ari continued, putting her hand on the button on the boar's head. "This is," she said, pressing the button down hard.

Instantly, the blade began collapsing into the handle, ridges appearing upon the blade so that it could retract. Once it was done, a larger, longer version of Ari's energy blades grew into existence out of the hilt.

"Woah," Clarisse said.

"That," Ari explained, "is for anything that isn't living."

Clarisse looked dumbfounded. "Like what?"

"Oh, automatons, possessed furniture, possessed houses, possessed vehicles, monsters and the like."

Clarisse whistled. "Impressive." A look of bewilderment took over shortly after. "Three different kinds of possessed things?" she asked in disbelief.

"You'd be surprised what I had to kill to get to Camp," Ari chuckled.

"I'll take your word for it," Clarisse conceded.

"Oh! And immortals," Ari remembered, snapping her fingers.

Clarisse's eyes bugged. "What."

"This orange energy causes a feedback loop in anything it injures, causing their own essence to make them implode. In the case of monsters, you get basketballs that explode into golden dust. In the case of immortals, it will cause them to have a REALLY bad day."

"This is an extremely powerful weapon," Clarisse gasped in realization.

"No kidding. Think of a contortionist that recently had an enema."

"I didn't need that mental image."

Ari smirked. "Yes you did. Be mindful of what you hit with that weapon."

Clarisse nodded, her face a little pale. "I will."

"Oh, and that's not the best thing," Ari said, grabbing the sword and tossing it across the arena.

"Hey!" Clarisse said, getting ready to punch the girl.

"Look at your belt," Ari said, interrupting her.

Clarisse did so, and to her astonishment the sword handle was hanging off her belt, neither blade extended and the hilt handles retracted in, causing the sword to look like a black cylinder with a boar's head on top.

"Just like Prissy's!" Clarisse cried, overjoyed. She grabbed the cylinder and pressed the button on the boar's head. The hilt popped out of the sides of the boar's head, and the normal sword blade extended out.

"Prissy? Do you mean Percy, the son of Poseidon?" Ari clarified.

"Yeah, he has this sword that's normally a pen and can-" Clarisse began.

"Return to him when he loses it, I know," Ari interrupted, "It's called Riptide."

"How do you know about Prissy's weapon?" Clarisse asked, glaring at her suspiciously again, her body language screaming 'I will fight you'.

"The Seven are a legend among mortals and immortals alike, including Percy," Ari scoffed, eyeing the stance Wrestler Girl took.

"Oh," Clarisse said, looking a little disappointed.

Ari crossed her arms and raised her brow at this. "Did you _want_ to fight me?"

Clarisse just glared at her.

"You DID!" Ari exclaimed with a laugh. Her face suddenly took on a dangerous look. "That would have been a very bad idea, Daughter of Ares," she said in a tone that did not sound quite human.

Despite being a little unnerved, Clarisse took the challenge. "Oh yeah? You and me, right now," she declared.

Ari eyed her with mirth in her eyes as if she were looking at a child. The daughter of Ares was beginning to get ticked off. Who did this girl think she was? Growling, Clarisse clicked the button on her sword, changing it to energy blade mode, and assumed a battle stance. The girl simply smirked and held out her hand. Clarisse jumped in shock as her sword ripped out of her hands into the waiting hand of her would-be opponent, then promptly deactivated. Grinning, she threw the blade back, only for it to disappear in midair. Clarisse felt a weight on her belt once again, and found her sword had returned to its location.

"We done?" Ari asked, tired of fooling around with the far too proud Wrestler Girl.

Clarisse just looked back and forth between her belt and Ari, fear evident on her face and mouth agape. She nodded defeat.

Ari approached her, realizing she'd not yet introduced herself. "My name is Ari. Unclaimed, before you ask," she said with a friendly smile, offering her hand for a shake.

Clarisse hesitated, but took the offered shake. "Clarisse, Daughter of Ares. But you already figured that out."

Ari nodded, then turned to look at the two demigods laying 'dead' on the ground. "Who are they?" she asked.

Clarisse turned to them, having forgotten about her slain companions whilst she conversed with Ari. Sorrow immediately washed over her face, and she ran over to them. Ari sighed, muttering "drama queen," before calmly walking to join her.

The daughter of Ares fell to her knees, fresh tears escaping her eyes. She cradled one of the demigod's heads in her arms, sobbing out something like "failure" and "not strong enough". Frankly, Ari had enough of this blubbering side of one of the strongest demigods she'd met, so once she reached Clarisse, she grabbed her arm and roughly hauled her up to a standing position.

"What are you doing?" Ari asked, an amused look on her face.

Clarisse glared at her with spite in her eyes. "They died and I couldn't save them," she said, choking on her words.

"Listen, listen!" Ari ordered, grabbing both of the sobbing demigod's shoulders and shaking her. "You did NOT fail them. This difficulty is supposed to be impossible."

"Difficulty?" Clarisse asked, "You speak as if this is a game."

Ari just smiled, prompting a confused look from her. "Where do you think we are right now, Clarisse?"

Sighing, she looked around the Coliseum, taking in her surroundings. "I don't know. One second we were in the new Hermes cabin, then we entered a room that had the letters V and R above the hallway. The next second, Jason, Piper and I were down here in the arena, fighting off hydra, with the rest of the campers arrayed on benches," she recalled. "And… then they were killed right in front of me… Couldn't do anything…" Clarisse continued to whimper.

 _Slap!_

Clarisse stood in shock with her mouth open, tentatively touching the now red cheek where Ari had slapped her.

"Stop it. You're a daughter of Ares for crying out loud. You don't cry except for pretty swords, do you hear me?" Ari yelled.

"Doesn't change the fact that they're dead, and I failed them," she muttered.

Ari huffed. Obviously Clarisse couldn't be talked out of this slump. "Command override Ari," she said to the air. Clarisse looked at her dumbfounded until a disembodied female voice answered her, further screwing up her facial expression. Ari knew it was because the command systems were relayed through telepathy, so she snickered.

COMMAND OVERRIDE AUTHORIZED, the voice said.

Ari grinned at Clarisse's perplexed expression, then simply said "Terminate."

TERMINATING PROGRAM, it responded.

Suddenly reality seemed to waver, fading in and out of existence. A grid of glowing lines appeared, and the entirety of the Coliseum, the arena and even the sky itself seemed to dissolve into the lines. The images of her dead friends on the ground followed suit, and then with a flash reality itself disappeared. When Clarisse could open her eyes again, she saw that everyone was standing in a giant circular room, easily five times the size of the entry chamber to the cabin. And she was promptly overcome by yelling in her ears.


	5. CH05 - Reality

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 05**

 _Reality_

"Clarisse! We're not dead!" the blonde male said, trying to shake her shoulders to gain her attention. He seemed surprised for some reason when his hands connected, shoving the daughter of Ares back a few feet. He looked at his hands in awe, then turned to where an extremely attractive, slender, brown haired girl stood gaping at what had just occurred. "PIPER!" he yelled again, running to embrace her. She was shaken out of her shock and momentarily faltered before wrapping her arms around him, and planting a kiss on his lips.

Clarisse witnessed this, then turned to Ari, who was watching her with a teasing smile on her face. "What was that?" she asked, glaring.

Ari took in a deep breath, as if she was about to explain something, prompting Clarisse to groan. Rolling her eyes, the crimson haired girl nonetheless continued. "That, Daughter of Ares, was High Technology at work. Everything we just experienced was a simulation. This room," she explained, gesturing around the room they stood in, "is basically a training room. But instead of dummies or open fields, any scenario that can physically exist can be assembled. Want to sword fight someone in the Himalayas? Jump out of a plane? Take a jog through Tartarus? All possible. Just run the corresponding program."

Clarisse also crossed her arms, but had a smirk on her face. She seemed completely over her sobbing fit from earlier, though her eyes were still a little red. "If none of that was real, how come our swords actually went through the hydra? And I definitely remember being covered in green blood."

Ari sighed, running her hand through her hair. "It WAS real, but also not. Was the terrain actually made out of atoms? Yeah. Were those atoms naturally placed? No. Everything except death in this chamber is real. You may have noticed neither of your friends are currently dead," she said, nodding to the embraced couple, "The system merely shunted them to a different plane of existence. The 'Observer Mode', so to speak. They can talk to each other, interact with each other, but the rest of the simulation acts as if they don't exist."

Just as she was finished, the skinny Latino elf from earlier arrived, sweating up a storm. He had a tool belt on, and was currently resting his hands on it, thumbs looped in between his pants and the belt. "Just… a second… guys. Too much… running," he gasped, trying to breathe deeply and speak at the same time. "Room… really big," he finished, wiping sweat off his forehead.

Clarisse chuckled. "You need to attend leg days, firestarter," she said to the boy.

"What? No I don't," he scoffed, leaning back until his back cracked. "AH, yeah, that's the spot. Now, where's the girl from earlier who made all this?" he asked Clarisse.

She just smirked and pointed to Ari, who was standing behind the boy. Twirling around, his eyes lit up when he recognized her. "Star Trek girl!" he yelled, running over to her and tackling her into a hug, which surprised Ari more than the nickname. The speed he was going caused her to lose balance, and they tumbled to the floor, the boy on top of her.

"Hey, get off!" Ari said, trying to push him off of her without hurting the boy. She was consciously keeping her suit from doing it, since he'd likely be flung to the other side of the room. After a few more seconds of struggling and incessant babbling on the boy's part, she was fed up. So she directed her suit to replicate itself, wrapping around the boy at his waist and trapping his hands in itself. Then she stood up, and picked the boy up as if he weighed nothing, placing him outside of her personal space. She also glared at Clarisse, who was laughing her butt off at her predicament.

The boy was wide-eyed. "Cool! What is this stuff? Did this come from your suit? Is it fire resistant? Let's test!" he sprayed out, then seemed to concentrate. The balls of metal encasing his hands began to glow orange, but then rapidly returned to their dark gray state. They gained orange glowing lines around them, and they stopped heating up. The boy looked crestfallen, leaving Ari to wonder what exactly he did.

"Why did you call me 'Star Trek girl'?" she asked him, interrupting his incessant babbling.

"Duh! You can make energy weapons and freaking _Holodecks!_ " he exclaimed, moving his arms like he was trying to gesture with them. Then he looked down at the metal orbs holding them to his sides and grumbled.

Ari rubbed the bridge of her nose. This guy was starting to get on her nerves, which meant he was a likely candidate for being one of the Seven. "Leo, I presume?"

"Yeah, what?" he said, before returning his attention to trying to get out of his binds.

"Your name. It's Leo, right?"

"Oh. Yeah, I'm Leo, inventor extraordinaire!" he exclaimed, again trying to gesture with his hands. Scowling down at the metal holding his hands, he asked "Hey, can you let me out of this now?"

"Promise you won't tackle me."

"I promise," he nodded.

"Alright," Ari sighed, willing the metal to return to her suit. It flowed off him like water, flying through the air until it landed with a splat against her stomach, where it melded with the rest of her suit. She chuckled at Leo's amazed expression.

"Let's try this again. I'm Ari, Unclaimed," she said, offering him a shake.

Leo took it readily, pumping her hand up and down with his. "Leo, Son of Hephaestus, it's great to meet you."

Ari nodded, her face growing serious. "Leo, do you still have the gun you took from me outside the cabin?"

"What? Oh yeah, of course I do!" Leo said cheerily, reaching into his belt. He promptly pulled the gun out, even though there is no way it could have possibly fit inside.

"Seems your tool belt is a lot like this cabin," Ari noticed.

"Yeah, it can pretty much hold anything I put inside," Leo confirmed.

Ari nodded approval. "Not bad. You can keep the gun, but be very careful with it. I don't want to repair more cabins."

Leo nodded in agreement. "So what is your suit made of?"

"A metal I dubbed Forcium. The same thing makes up that gun. But if you're asking why I can shift it into different things, it's because this is the liquid form."

Leo looked like a kid in a candy store. "How does it stay liquid? Thermodynamics say it should turn solid."

"Well, 'liquid Forcium' is technically a puddle of nanites, themselves made out of the metal. I just say 'liquid' since it's easier."

Leo looked puzzled. "Nanites?"

Ari donned an offended face. "Leo Valdez, how can you call me Star Trek girl and not know what nanites are?" she scolded.

He looked down at the ground, mumbling "it never came up."

Ari simply chuckled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Nanites are microscopic machines."

Leo's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh! You mean Nanobots!" he exclaimed, snapping his fingers.

"I suppose that's another term for them, yes," Ari conceded. "Jeez, do they ever come up for air?" she asked in awe, seeing Jason and Piper _still_ lip-locked.

"Nope! Jason's a son of Zeus, Pipes is Aphrodite's, you do the math," Leo explained.

"Huh. Guess that's one bonus of being Thunderhead's kid."

Leo raised his eyebrows, a smile cracking his face. "Thunderhead?"

In response, Ari waved it off like a nickname for a god was normal. "Zeus, whatever. His title should be Drama King, but I'll settle for Thunderhead."

Leo looped an arm around her shoulders. "I've got a feeling we're gonna be good friends, Ari," he said with a chuckle.

"Careful Valdez, Calypso might get jealous," Clarisse said with a smirk.

"What? Of Ari? Nah, Cally is the only one for me," he responded, getting a lovestruck look in his eyes.

"Careful Leo, your inner girl is showing," Ari teased.

"Really? Let me get that for you," Leo replied, then lightly kissed her on the cheek.

"Leo!" Ari laughed, shoving his arm off her shoulders. He laughed as he fell to the ground, grasping his stomach, grinning like mad.

She smiled back at him, and helped him up. Once he was on his feet, she lightly punched him in the arm. "I want to meet them."

"Who?" Leo asked, confused, rubbing his arm a little.

Ari rolled her eyes. "Them, moron," she said, pointing to the couple who were still kissing somehow.

"Aye, aye, ma'am," Leo saluted, mock bowing, then walked over to his friends to wake them up.

Ari sighed. _If only you were my brother, Leo Valdez,_ she thought, watching Piper punch him for interrupting her session with Jason, _though, time will tell. Maybe you will be at some point._

Leo turned back to her, beckoning her over. She nodded, then turned to Clarisse. "It was fun fighting with you, Wrestler Girl," Ari said, grabbing Clarisse's forearm with her hand.

Clarisse did the same, though she laughed at the nickname. "Wrestler Girl. I like it. Fully expecting a duel out of you in the future, Ari," she said, slightly bowing in respect.

Ari did the same, then bade her goodbye. The daughter of Ares went off to do something, probably hang out with her siblings, and Ari walked over to Leo. Seeing her approach, Leo poked Jason and Piper in their sides. "Sparky, Pipes, this is Ari. She's the one who built this glorious room," he introduced her.

Before Ari could speak, Jason beat her to the punch. "I'm Jason, nice to meet you," the blonde haired, electric blue eyed boy said, offering a hand to her to shake.

Ari looked puzzled, since abruptly introducing herself with a handshake was _her_ thing. Regardless, she accepted the hand. "Like Leo said, I'm Ari. Though Connor Stoll is the one who designed the cabin, I just provided the tech to do so."

"I'm sure you've already been asked this, but who's your godly parent?" Piper chimed in.

"Hey Piper, nice to meet you as well," Ari nodded to her in greeting. "As for my godly parent, I'm Unclaimed."

All three demigods looked surprised. "Percy told us that demigods are claimed when they step over the camp line at the latest, and we're supposed to be claimed by thirteen. How are you not claimed?" Jason asked.

The crimson haired girl just shrugged. "It doesn't really bother me. I'm my own person, not just my parent's daughter," she said, dodging the question.

Jason nodded approvingly, Piper smiled and Leo clapped her on the back.

"So Jason and Piper," Ari began, getting both their attentions with a suggestive wave of her eyebrows, "That was some kiss."

Jason's cheeks grew bright red, but Piper just smiled lovingly and put her arm around her boyfriend. "It sure was, Jason," she said, her eyes seemingly changing color.

That meant she could only be one goddesses' daughter, and it confirmed what Ari had heard of them from the legend of the Seven. "Piper, you're a daughter of Aphrodite, right?"

She smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah."

"Which makes Jason a son of Zeus."

The blonde shook his head. "Jupiter, actually."

Ari's eyes widened. "You're a Roman."

Jason nodded, then pulled up his left sleeve, revealing a tattoo of the letters SPQR with what looked like a barcode below it, the figure of an eagle above.

" _Senatus Populusque Romanus_ ," Ari said, reading the acronym.

Jason looked surprised. "You speak Latin?"

"The Senate and People of Rome," she replied with a nod.

"I'm impressed," the son of Jupiter said.

"Careful Jason," Leo teased, "I don't want Ari walking off a bridge."

The mentioned girl raised her brow. "And why would I do that, Valdez?"

Piper sighed, looking disturbed. "He's referring to my charmspeak. Even though he _knows_ I only use it maliciously versus monsters," she explained with a glare.

Ari grumbled, rolled her eyes, and punched Leo in the stomach. "Charmspeak huh? Cool ability," she continued nonchalantly, as if the firestarter was not reeling on the ground holding his abdomen.

Piper scratched the back of her head, though she smiled gratefully. Jason tightened his grip around her waist, trying to comfort her. "Yeah, it's useful. Though people are often scared of me because of it."

'Well, i'm not scared of you, if it helps," Ari offered, trying to make her feel better.

"Why not?" Piper asked, puzzled. "I may be benevolent with my power, but others aren't. The 'walking off a bridge' scenario is very possible."

Leo muttered something under his breath, possibly a person's name. It sounded a lot like 'Flew'.

Ari chuckled, ending with a smirk. "For two reasons, Piper. Like you said, you're benevolent. I've heard of the Seven's adventure, but not a single thing about you actually hurting anyone who didn't deserve it."

Piper blushed, looking down and shuffling her feet. "Thanks, I guess," she said with a smile.

"Also, I'm immune to external influences."

Jason's eyebrows perked up. "What was that?"

"Charmspeak doesn't affect me," Ari said simply.

Piper snapped her head up. "Really?" she said,curiosity on her face. "You don't mind if I test that out?"

Leo chimed in, now laying on the floor with a leg hanging over his other, bent leg. "Piper's charmspeak is absurdly powerful," he said. "Even gods themselves have been affected."

Jason and Piper nodded their agreement.

"And yet, it will not affect me. Run your test if you must," Ari said, brushing off their assumptions about her vulnerability.

"Fine then," Piper said, before her voice laced over with layers and layers of raw power. Her irises gained a myriad of colors until there was a rainbow part in them. She looked Ari straight in the eyes and said "Kiss Leo." The effect was so strong even Jason looked over to the firestarter with a lusty glance.

Ari felt the waves of power wash over her, attempting to override her will. Just for a second, a miniscule second, she allowed a tiny bit of her true form to shine through. Enough to get the message across to the daughter of Aphrodite, at least subconsciously, who was in charge. Her orange eyes were replaced by flares of light and she glared right back, sending her own wave of power outwards, negating the effect of the charmspeak. Piper shivered, and Ari knew the message was delivered. Then her eyes were back to normal, and Piper would only think it a trick of the light.

Acting like nothing had happened, Ari crossed her arms and looked down at Leo. "Well that's not fair, he is quite the looker," she said defiantly, causing him to blush.

Piper's eyes rapidly lost all colors until they settled on purple, and her mouth dropped open. Jason followed suit, while Leo merely looked impressed. "Nice job, Star Trek girl," he said with a smirk on his face.

Ari smiled back. "Don't worry Piper, I'm sure your charmspeak is as powerful as I've heard. If you ever need a friend who can't be scared of your power, feel free to hit me up," she said, nodding her head.

Piper was still aghast, but she managed to reply. "Uh... Yeah, sure, Ari. I'd love to," she stammered out.

Just then Ari heard an angry cry from the direction of the Hermes campers. "Sorry guys, gotta go. Those who live in this cabin probably want to know where their stuff went when Connor remodeled it," she said hastily, dashing off before they could reply.

As she approached the group of people, most with blonde hair and elvish features, she spotted the legs of a horse. _Good. Chiron, and therefore the Stolls, have arrived._ When she was just a few feet away, she shouted to get their attention.

"Hey guys!" Ari said, waving to the Stolls. They waved back, Chiron nodding to her, before a young girl, barely fifteen if that and clearly a child of Hermes, broke from the heated argument she was in with Connor and approached her. Her face did not convey a friendly demeanor.

"Where is our stuff, newbie?" the girl asked, poking Ari in the chest with every word she said.

On the last word, Ari got tired of the girl's antics, forcefully grabbing her hand to stop the assault. "Whoever you are, know this; treating me incorrectly will end up working out _very_ badly for you," she growled, glaring at the girl. The girl struggled against her grip, but Ari was extremely strong. After trying twice more, she gave up and hung her head.

Ari shifted her glare to Travis, motioning to the girl in her grip with her head. He seemingly got the message, because he came over and put his hands on her shoulders, whispering something in her ear. The girl nodded, and her arm slumped. Ari let her go, then turned slightly to address the rest of Cabin Eleven.

"Connor, why don't you show us where the bedrooms are?" she asked, putting a look in her eyes that clearly said _I'm not asking._

Connor visibly gulped, but managed to comply without shaking in his voice. "Sure thing, Ari!" he said, then addressed the group of demigods. "As I was trying to tell Mira here, each person now has their own apartment to themselves. They're in the Cabin Hall, the one that has dad's symbol of power above it," he explained.

Mira. _So that's her name. Going to have a talk with her later on,_ Ari thought, writing the equivalent of a mental sticky note to remind herself.

"Let's go," Travis said, turning around with his brother and heading towards the hallway entrance. The campers of Cabin Eleven followed suit, Chiron and Ari behind them.

The centaur was sending sideways glances at Ari, and it was getting on her nerves. Finally, when they had crossed the gym, her patience ran out. "Whatever you want to ask, Chiron, just go ahead. The looks are getting annoying."

"Why put such effort into a new Hermes cabin? Why include all these areas when the camp is more than sufficient?" Chiron said under his breath.

So that was it. His pride was wounded by what she had given out. Hmph. "Cabin Eleven has always had the short end of the stick from what I've heard. Housing all the unclaimed and those who don't have a cabin, resulting in generally very cramped quarters. That's not okay. They deserve better," Ari said, gesturing around her, "So I gave them better."

Chiron narrowed his eyes at her. "There's more to it than that," he said suspiciously.

"Maybe yes, maybe no. You'll have to wait and see," Ari shrugged with a smile.

The centaur grunted in return. "As you wish, My Lady."

Ari glared at him, hastily glancing at the campers to see if anyone heard that. Luckily it seemed nobody did, so she let out a breath she'd been holding in. "I told you not to call me that," she hissed at the centaur.

"My mistake," Chiron said though his grin clearly told another story.

"A mistake, sure," Ari muttered, "And I'm the Queen of Norway."

"Are you?" Chiron asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ari rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. Much too public," she scoffed.

Chiron let out a knowing "Mmmhmm," but was unable to say any more as they had arrived at the main chamber. And Connor was asking Ari something.

"Say that again, Connor?" she asked.

"I said, can you introduce people to the new rooms?" Connor repeated.

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Ari said, turning right and walking to the hallway with a caduceus above it. The campers of Cabin Eleven followed.

The hallway contained doors on both sides, placed just about the width of a person from each other in the walls. Each door had a different symbol etched in the metal, a black rectangle on the left side and a hand-sized square of slightly darker silver metal on the right. As the group walked past, names flashed into existence on the black rectangles, revealing them to be some sort of name tag.

She turned around and began taking backwards like a tour guide. "Right, well, each of these doors leads to a bedroom, and each bedroom is assigned to a camper. Only the camper themselves, the cabin counselors, or myself can go in without permission from the room's owner," Ari explained.

"Why can you go in?" Mira asked, crossing her arms.

Ari just smiled sweetly at her, though internally she was irritated. "This entire cabin is basically made out of my own technology, thus I have control over it. Even if that wasn't the case, what if something goes wrong with any of the tech in your room? I'm literally the only one who understands it, so if I can't save you, you're out of luck," she explained with victory in her eyes.

Mira just grumbled in response and turned away.

"Let's see one of these 'rooms', shall we?" Chiron cut in.

"Okay. Although calling them 'rooms' is a little disingenuous," Ari chuckled in response.

Connor laughed knowingly, but everyone else looked at them like they were crazy.

Ari sighed, shaking her head. "Look, let's just go into one, you'll see what I mean," she said. Spinning around in the middle of the hallway, she pointed at random doors. "Eenie, meenie, money, moe." Finally she picked one that had an hourglass engraved in it. "This one," Ari said, approaching the door. She looked down and read off the name on the doors nametag. "Hey, who's Luke Castellan?"

Instantly the din of chatting teens went dead. Hearing the sudden silence behind her, Ari turned around and was dumbfounded by the mixed looks of dread, sorrow and pain on everyone's faces.

"What? Did I say their name wrong?" she asked.

Travis shook his head, but it was Connor who responded. "Luke... Luke is..," he choked, correcting himself, "Was our cabin counselor... before."

"Before what?" Ari pressed.

"The Second Titan War," Chiron said, since nobody else seemed to want to reply.

Ari wracked her brain, trying to remember the tale she'd heard. Wasn't there some demigod who'd hosted Kronos? "Uh, this Luke guy... By any chance, was he the one who betrayed Olympus?" she asked.

She received so many glares that if looks could kill and she was mortal, she'd have multiple ghosts in line for the Underworld.

"Luke died a hero. He saved everyone in the end," Travis scowled.

 _Touchy subject much?_ Ari thought. "Sorry to assume then." _But if he's dead, why does he have a room?_ Ari pondered to herself. Did her tech know something she didn't?

"Well, uh, we can always see another room if that'd be better," Ari offered.

"Good idea," Mira growled.

Ari ignored her tone, given that she deserved it, and looked for another door. She found one with a laughing mask on it, the nametag reading 'Travis Stoll'. "Hey Travis, how about yours?"

Travis nodded, but didn't speak to her.

Ari raised her eyebrows at this, but merely turned back to the door and placed her hand on the metal plate to the right of it. The plate momentarily displayed a glowing copy of her handprint before fading, and the door opened sideways with a hiss.

Inside the door was a large room, white carpeting on the floor and light brown walls. In the middle of the room was a large couch shaped like a U, wrapping around what looked like a dark metal cube with some room between the couch and the cube, enough to walk through. The open end of the couch faced the left wall, which had a pitch black rectangle set inside it, looking an awful lot like a TV. Directly on the other side of the room from the entryway was a hallway, leading into what looked like a bathroom, with a doorframe on the left side. From their position outside the entry door, nobody could see what room that was, but Ari guessed it to be the bedroom. The right wall of the main room was missing, with a counter standing waist high in place of it. On the other side of the counter was a fridge, but more of that area couldn't be seen.

"Woah," Travis said.

Ari sighed and pulled him inside. The rest of the campers followed, but Chiron had to bend down to get through the door. Once inside, the high height of the ceiling accommodated him fine.

She dragged Travis into the middle of the main room, which was clearly a living room, before letting go of his hand and hopping onto the couch. It seemed the counter they'd seen from the doorway was actually a dividing island, separating a kitchen suite from the rest of the living room. Ari whistled, a look of approval on her face. Travis was looking around, his jaw hanging open. The look was repeated by most of the other campers, including that irritating Mira.

"Connor, you design this yourself?" Ari asked, seeing he wasn't staring in awe.

Connor nodded. "Yeah, mine's the same. Figured my bro would need help," he snickered.

Gesturing to the gaping Stoll brother, she smirked. "He certainly seems impressed by it."

"Well, provided your silver pool thing wasn't lying, there's something that might even impress you," Connor said.

Ari was interested. It would have to be pretty spectacular to impress _her_. "Alright, I'll humor you. Show me," she teased.

Connor smirked, then offered his hand out and bowed like a gentleman. "If the lady so desires," he said with a fake accent.

Ari rolled her eyes and smacked his hand away. "Show me," she ordered.

"Yes ma'am," Connor teased, earning a punch in the shoulder. He grunted and took it, a mischievous glint in his eyes, before turning to the gaping campers and raising his voice. "Hey guys, I've got something to show you!" he yelled, before grabbing Ari's hand and rushing over to a door she hadn't noticed. It looked an awful lot like a sliding door that mortals used, and Connor pushed it open in exactly the same way, revealing a scene that made Ari's jaw drop for the first time in a long time.

Travis walked up behind them. "Okay, I know you said the cabin was bigger on the inside, but this is ridiculous!"


	6. CH06 - Coastline

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 06**

 _Coastline_

"How?" Ari asked with incredulity, looking at the unassuming demigod in awe.

"Your puddle told me it could make it, but I just assumed it would be a hologram," Connor replied, and it seemed his mouth was slightly ajar as well.

Ari looked at the demigod in a new light. Even she didn't know the limits of the technology she created, it seemed. "It's amazing, Connor," she said, patting him on the back.

"Yeah," he breathed in response.

And it truly was amazing. A huge bay lay in front of them, a sandy beach stretching out over the horizon. Waves calmly lapped up and down the shore, the sun kissing the edge of a seemingly endless ocean.

One, no, _two_ moons could be seen, just barely. They were coming up on either side of the horizon relative to the sun, but neither moved. The celestial bodies seemed frozen in time, a perpetual twilight. Dolphins played in the water a ways off the beach and seagulls circled in the deep blue sky.

What looked like a pier jutted out with a building anchored to the end. Lights were on in the building, and jovial music from the 50s wafted over to them. Ari almost lost herself in the peaceful atmosphere. She was ready to fall asleep right there on the sand, despite what she was making the necessity of sleep irrelevant.

What kept her awake was the realization that if she slept, Morpheus would know she was there and alert the Olympians. That and the wave of gasps rising up behind them.

Ari turned around and saw the demigods had followed them outside, before noticing what they had come out of. A light brown house sat on the sand, complete with a balcony and a pool. Connor had outdone himself, no question. Glancing up and down the beach, she noticed other houses, identical in design, and assumed they were the other 'rooms' of Cabin Eleven.

"Connor," Chiron spoke, barely a whisper.

"Yeah, Chiron?" he asked, not moving his eyes away from the beach.

"I was wrong." That got Connor's attention. "This is so much more than Olympus."

Connor beamed at that, but Travis looked confused. "Did I just hear correctly? Horse Butt admitted he was wrong?" he mock gasped.

Chiron sent a glare at the son of Hermes. "Yes, though you will not hear it again. Treasure it," he glowered. "And do not call me that!" he scolded.

Ari laughed, a deep hearty laugh. She needed to relax more, it seemed to do good for her. "Chiron, we're never going to let you live that down," she said.

"Nope!" both Stoll brothers agreed.

"Are you sure you're not a child of Hermes, Ari?" Chiron replied. Ari thought he was joking, and laughed, but apparently he wasn't judging by the serious look on his face, and the inquisitive stares she was getting from the Stolls.

"'Unless Hermes spent time as a woman, probably not, " she skillfully deflected, shrugging. Chiron just grunted, but the attention of Connor and Travis was off of her for the time being. _Whew, that was close,_ she thought, wiping her forehead. _I want to know for sure before I tell them, though._

Shelving that project for another day, she sighed and looked at the ocean once again. "It's so peaceful," she heard a couple campers say, and just nodded along with them. For a being such as herself, simply relaxing was never on the list. Too much work to do. Such an expansive domain to service. Maybe she could copy this... bay that Connor created, take some time off. Once she was done with the job on Terra, of course.

Travis looked down the pier and blinked several times. "Is that a Ruby's Diner?" he asked incredulously.

Connor grinned and nodded. "Yep."

The Stolls glanced at each other and then to Ari, looking like lost puppies. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, we can go get something to eat. Chiron, you coming?" she asked the centaur.

"I suppose it would not hurt," he reasoned, raising his eyebrows in interest. "Though only a lunch; you must still have room for dinner!"

That was enough for the entire Hermes cabin to let out a cheer. They moved to surround the Stoll brothers, urging them to go!

Travis grinned at Connor and they catapulted across the sand towards the pier, followed by the almost horde of campers. This left Ari and Chiron in merciful silence on the beach.

Ari suddenly started chuckling. Chiron noticed this and inquired about it. "What amuses you, My Lady?"

Ari tensed at his method of address and shot him a glare. "Chiron!" she hissed, looking around.

The centaur huffed. "I do not see why you care when we are alone."

Ari's eye twitched. "You enter precarious territory, Trainer of Heroes," she warned dangerously.

Chiron glanced sideways, worried for only a moment. With a knowing scoff, he turned back to the pier and began trotting after the Hermes campers.

Ari was left stunned for several seconds before she ran to catch up.

* * *

"Hello, welcome to Ruby's, may I take your order?"

Travis blinked at the very normal looking young woman who had walked up to their table. She had a red dress on with a white apron and was holding a pad of paper. She absently tapped the pen against her chin while swaying back and forth on her feet. This girl was full of energy and looked incredibly normal.

But.

One simple fact freaked Travis out. She was inside something his brother had _created_. Was she real? Travis directed a raised eyebrow at his brother, who was sitting across the table from him. He only got a shrug in response. Turning back to the girl, he decided to go with the flow. "Uh… a milkshake, please? Vanilla with chocolate chips?"

The girl nodded and hastily wrote it down. "And for your meal?" she asked, looking into his eyes.

Travis was unnerved by the entirely human gaze he was under. "Um… a burger. With, uh, fries?"

She nodded again, wrote it down, and turned to Connor expectantly.

His brother fared a little better under her penetrating gaze. "Same milkshake, breaded chicken, and fries please."

The girl nodded, smiled, and wrote the last information onto her pad of paper. "Alright, well. Just let me get this back to the kitchen and your food should be done shortly!" With that she moved away, towards the kitchen, and gently entered through two small swinging doors.

The Stoll brothers snapped their eyes into one another's gazes as soon as she was out of sight. "She seemed so real!" Travis whispered.

"I know!" Connor agreed.

"Did you make her?"

Connor shook his head. "Nope. It must have been Ari."

Travis raised his eyebrows. "I thought you designed the cabin…"

Connor gave his almost twin a deadpan look. "Man, I'm smart, but not _this_ _smart!_ Look at all this!" he gestured around to the restaurant and the surrounding bay. "There's no way I could have created all this on my own. I'm pretty sure I felt her there along with me when I was creating the cabin," he admitted.

Travis' eyebrows shot into orbit. "She was in your head?"

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous," Ari said from Connor's left. As the Stoll brothers emulated pop rockets, she faded into view with a smirk on her face. "I wasn't in your head. I was interfaced with the cabin alongside you so that I could manage all the fine details you would never think of."

"Gods, don't DO that!" they scolded in unison, leveling unhappy glares at her face. The glares only got more intense when she laughed at them.

The brothers hadn't stopped glaring at her. "Come on guys, don't be such sore sports," she admonished.

The two brothers abruptly broke into grins, Travis calling it. "Gotcha," he said, a teasing look in his eye.

Ari narrowed her eyes at him and stuck out her tongue. Her retort was cut off by the sound of hooves. The three demigods turned their heads to see the Trainer of Heroes arriving next to their table with a dismayed look.

"I suppose it is too much to expect centaur-friendly accommodations," he grumbled.

Ari placed an elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. "You so sure about that?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows. Unseen by everyone else, her hand did a little wave in the centaur's direction.

"What do you mean-" he asked, before he suddenly felt something missing. Glancing backwards in curiosity, he gave the three an image that rarely graced the Earth; the Trainer of Heroes with his mouth dropped open in astonishment.

"How…" he gasped out, staring at the empty space where his horse half used to be. Instead, his fore legs had changed to a human bipedal system, clad in immaculate dress slacks and sneakers. He noticed this and looked directly at Ari, who smiled.

The Stolls were rapidly swiveling their heads between the now human Chiron and the completely smug look on Ari's face.

Ari motioned to her wrist and gently tapped it, signaling for Chiron to do the same. He hesitated only a second before repeating the action. With a flare of orange light a dark metal watch appeared on his wrist. The face turned clockwise ninety degrees. The centaur-turned-human gasped as his legs morphed into his previous half horse body. He patted down his flanks in amazement and sent her a questioning look.

"Nanotechnology, Chiron," Ari said. "Millions of microscopic machines that can reform molecules."

"That's impossible," he breathed. "Only gods can transform others."

"Nope," she replied, popping the p. "Mortal science is five, ten years at max away from their first generation of nanites. My type are thousands of years ahead, of course, but modification of matter is one of the first things this technology can accomplish," Ari explained, her eyes filling with wonder as she described it. "The Age of Man is coming, Chiron, whether the Olympians know it or not."

The entire diner full of Hermes campers had stopped talking halfway through her speech, everyone staring at her with wide eyes.

Ari noticed this and waved them off. "That's not important now, though. Relax, eat, enjoy!" she announced, turning back to the table. She waved a hand over it, muttering something. With a hum, space distorted in front of her, and a huge bowl of vanilla chocolate swirl ice cream appeared.

"Yum!" she exclaimed. When she saw nobody else was doing anything but staring at her, her eyes grew dark. "Seriously. Stop looking at me."

With how fast their heads spun around, a sonic boom should have been emitted.

Travis whistled. "Scary Ari," he said.

Ari's eyebrow twitched, but that was the only indication that she heard him. "Please sit, Chiron," she dictated. "You'll have to be in human form, of course."

Chiron bowed slightly and tapped his watch. A clockwise turn later he was sitting in the seat besides Travis, marveling at the perspective change.

"So, Chiron," Ari prompted, after loudly slurping a spoonful of deliciousness, "what do you do around here for fun?"

The grizzled centaur frowned disapprovingly. "I am the activities director, Ari. I do not normally engage in the camper's extracurricular activities."

Ari had managed to keep a straight face through his sentence, but sent the two sons of Hermes astonished looks. "Is he always like this?"

The Stolls nodded with grim set lips, though if one looked closely they could see the slight twitches in their expressions belaying their true state.

Ari turned back to Chiron and scowled. "You need to get out more, Chiron," she scolded him.

Said centaur eyed them suspiciously. "I see now that the three of you will be what finally does me in, despite my immortality," he commented.

Ari smirked at the brothers. "I bet I can give him gray hair faster than you," she challenged.

They met her gaze with determination. "You're on!"

The poor Trainer of Heroes sunk into the seat, palms hiding his face from the victorious smirks of the children in his presence. Even if Ari was what she was, she clearly never grew up. "Save me, Lord Zeus," be muttered.

Ari patted the top of the esteemed teacher's head. "There there, no need to call on old Thunderhead. You'll survive us."

The Stolls were flat out laughing, with the campers near them struggling and failing to hold in their snickering.

"Probably."

"Di Immortales," the centaur groaned.

* * *

"This is really, really good," Travis commented between sips of his milkshakes.

The waiter girl smiled at him. "I'll give your compliments to the chef."

"How's old Crateris doing these days, by the way?" Ari asked her.

The girl's eyes snapped wide open when she realized who'd spoken. "I am sorry, my Lady. I did not know you were here," she said, curtsying as best she could with a pad of paper in her hand.

Ari sighed. "Really, this Lady stuff has got to stop. I don't care if I created you guys; I'm not your overlord, or overlady, as it were," she stated, clearly complaining.

The girl looked down, ashamed. "Sorry, my L- Ari. It is a reflex we are still trying to overcome."

Travis and Connor, meanwhile, had heads snapping between the two of them like machine guns.

"What?" Ari asked them.

"Created? You… made her?" Connor asked delicately.

Ari blinked at him confused for a few moments before turning to the girl. "You haven't introduced yourself?"

The girl frowned. "They seemed freaked out enough about me existing. Didn't want to worry them, they are our customers after all."

Ari rolled her eyes and smacked each Stoll brother upside the head. "If you want to, go ahead. I'll smack them again if they make fun of you," she assured the girl.

"Thank you, my La- I mean, Ari," the girl caught herself. Her image wavered and dissolved, leaving another version of her body in its place. She smiled sadly and braced herself for rejection. "I'm Andromeda. Nice to meet you."

She was actually almost identical to the image she'd displayed before, minus some coloring differences. She looked like her previous self made out of Ari's signature metal, with dark metal for skin and orange lines for detailing. Her clothes were a slightly lighter shade of the metal. Her eyes were the most intriguing, for the facsimile of a human eye was present. Her irises contained overlapping orange patterns that shifted around at different speeds as she changed expressions. Right now they were slower, careful; reflecting her inner turmoil as she waited for the demigods' disapproval.

Travis was speechless. Connor wasn't, though with his mouth hanging open it was hard to tell.

"Dude," he breathed out, "You are so _cool!_ "

The girl blinked. "Wait, what?" Her tone was one of complete disbelief. She'd never received quite _that_ reaction before.

Connor was on his feet almost immediately. "What are you made of? How do all your limbs move? Do you have a brain? Ooh, can you do anything awesome?" he rapid fired while zooming around the poor girl.

She looked to her creator in a plea for assistance. "Lady Ari!" Her voice was clearly exasperated.

"Are you a computer? Ooh, can you feel emotions? How fast can you run? Can you turn your arms into swords? How cool is that! Oh wait, what about those guns Ari's so fond of?"

Ari just grinned and brought the milkshake to her lips. She never broke eye contact or stopped grinning while she drank the thing.

Connor didn't stop either. He got _worse._

"Do you have girl parts? Can you have kids?" He gasped, and despite the blush spreading on his face, dove in for the kill. "Could _we_ have kids?!"

The girl sent a final, desperately pleading look to her race's creator as her dark metal cheeks grew orange, a blush attacking her face so hard she looked like a heated stone. The only response she got was a snorted "You're on your own, kid."

"Oh Progress, give me strength," she muttered under her breath.

Nobody noticed a certain daughter of Hermes glaring at the scene with distaste. Nor did they see the calculating look she gained when she heard the metal girl's plea to her deity and the suspiciously timed eye roll of the new girl in Camp Half-Blood.

* * *

Chiron eventually gave up in his lackluster attempts to get Ari and the Stolls off his back. The brothers were bad enough on their own, but with this new divine being added in?

He'd be lucky if he survived the week.

The old centaur trainer's eyes flew open. "Di Immortales," he cursed under his breath. "Ari, Connor, Travis; the weekly game of Capture the Flag is tonight," he spoke up.

Ari was about to take a bite of ice cream when his voice broke through her thoughts. Ignoring the Stoll's whooping with joy and fist bumping each other, she gently placed the spoon, ice cream still on it, back into her bowl before glancing sideways at Chiron. "Capture the Flag?" she inquired.

"We have an annual game of Capture the Flag every Friday," Chiron answered. "There are two teams. The winning cabins from the prior match usually make alliances with children of the God or Goddess of their choice by trading camp chore duties or shower schedules-"

Ari cut him off by way of spluttered protest. "I'm sorry what? Chores? _Time schedules for Showers?!_ "

"Thank you!" Travis exclaimed.

"Someone else who thinks it's crazy!" Connor chimed in.

The millennia old Trainer of Heroes was taken aback at their reaction. "There are duties that must be tended to, Ari, and everyone must do their fair share. The communal showers are also simply not large enough to house all the campers at the same time." He was admonishing someone far above his station, yes, but she had basically commanded him to do so. Not that deities made sense normally.

Ari glared sideways at him, clearly unimpressed. "Chiron, this is a camp for the children of beings capable of moulding reality to their whim, something which most of the mentioned kids can do _themselves_ , and you have it running like a _normal summer camp?!_ " Her shriek brought pain to the old centaur's ears.

He hesitated too long to reply. "No," Ari declared, almost growling. "Things around here are definitely going to change."

Chiron had no choice. He could only follow her directive. "Yes, My Lady." He said it softly so only she could hear, but bowed his head to her just in case she didn't. For everyone else's ears he spoke louder. "You make excellent points, Ari. I will have to consider your words."

She huffed. Her scowl went away to be replaced by a satisfied grin. His new Lady continued eating her ice cream, ignoring the completely astounded faces of the Hermes brothers sitting on the other side of their table.

"Connor?" Travis asked.

"Yeah, bro?" Connor replied.

"I think Ari just got Chiron to change his mind," the first brother continued.

The two abruptly collapsed forwards onto the table and kowtowed to the deity, unknowingly of course. "We are not worthy!" they decried. "We are in the presence of greatness!"

Ari smirked, shaking her spoon at the two of them. "And don't you forget it."

* * *

After their lunch the foursome took a short stroll on the beach outside. Chiron had not yet gone back to his centaur form. He was marvelling at the experience of the ocean waves washing over his bare feet.

The Stoll brothers were hanging on Ari's every breath. She couldn't get rid of them. Ironically they now worshipped her as a goddess of pranking and adult manipulation. She wasn't actually sure what she'd done to earn their devotion, but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to tease them about it.

"So you worship me, huh?" Ari asked for the tenth time.

Even after this many times, the kneeling and kowtowing act they did, completely ignoring the sand on them, was entertaining. "We are not worthy!"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on you two. Get up. This is embarrassing." She strode forward and yanked the two brothers up by their arms. She then began to drag them towards the waiting Chiron, who was observing her misery with a barely concealed smirk.

"Oh laugh it up, old man," she fired off, pushing past the human form centaur and striding up the beach towards where Travis' house… cabin… room thing sat.

She was still dragging the Stolls when she opened the screen door with her foot and shoved them inside. "Behave!" Ari commanded. She slammed the door in their faces and turned around, heading back to Chiron.

His smirk had turned into a full on grin.

"What?" she demanded.

"If I did not know better," Chiron said teasingly, "I would assume you were their older sister."

Ari rolled her eyes and turned around. "Whatever you want to believe, Horse Butt." She tapped a few times on her gauntlet. "See you in the eating pavilion."

Space warped around her for a moment, and before the ancient Centaur's widened eyes, she disappeared. He cursed in his head.

Worse than her now being able to escape supervision at any time she wished, she had won that round of verbal fencing.

That rankled Chiron's flanks something bad.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay. I'm keeping this short and... uh... perhaps not sweet, but short.**

 **1: I am not dead.**

 **2: This story is not dead.**

 **3: I have about... 7? 8? chapters written already, waiting to be posted by me.**

 **4: Here's the difficult part; I have two (one, now) chapters to post (write for CH7) before them. I've had a Mount Everest-sized Writer's Block for a very long time on these two chapters (6 and 7). Even now I'm not very happy with 6, but it's done and that's that.**

 **So yeah. 7 will be here... whenever. After that posting should pick up speed.**


	7. CH07 - The Hearth Captured

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 07**

 _The Hearth Captured_

"Attention Hermes Campers," Chiron began. He was standing next to one of the 'wall access panel' devices embedded into the new Cabin's metal walls, his finger depressed slightly into the transparent screen on top of a button marked 'Transmit'.

Disbelief coloring his assumptions once again, he turned to look at his new Lady with an upturned brow. "Are you _certain_ they can hear me through this?" he asked again, for what could have easily been the fourth time.

Ari groaned and rolled her eyes at him. "Yes Chiron. They can all hear you. You're patched into the Cabin's Global Voice Announcement system. Anyone inside these walls, no matter where they are, who they are, or what they're doing, can hear you. And me. None of this has changed since the last six times you asked."

Chiron grinned sheepishly. So it was more than four. "Very well." He turned back to the panel. After a moment, he brought his face closer to the device, just in case it could not hear him.

He heard a scoff of exasperation behind him, but paid it no mind.

"Campers!" Chiron began again. "While the new Hermes cabin is indeed impressive, there are things we must do today. I am sure the Hermes campers would very much like to get settled in, and there are preparations to begin for a special event. Tonight is, after all, our annual Capture the Flag game!"

Two cheers abruptly rose from behind him, giving the normally stoic Trainer of Heroes a slight bout of surprise. If anyone asked, he would deny the slight hopping off the floor he had performed when the two Hermes counselors intentionally scared him.

He would also deny being scared.

"Yes, as you can hear the Stoll brothers are quite enthused to play. Please, if you are not a member of the Hermes cabin, finish what you are doing and depart for the camp. You can always come back later, as I have been notified by Ari that the Bay is freely available to anyone who wishes it. An entrance will be made in the Entrance Hall for direct access to the beach. To all Hermes cabin members, please settle in and then join us outside for the evening meal and preparations for the game!"

Chiron hesitated after he finished his speech. What was he supposed to do now?

"You take your finger off the panel. It will automatically return to what it was doing before," she helpfully explained.

He nodded and slowly removed his finger. Once his skin was no longer pressed into the nonexistent button, the device beeped twice, the message 'Comms disabled. Returning to sleep mode' flashed across the black square, and the screen dimmed until it was not casting any extra light into the hall.

"A most interesting system, Ari," Chiron commented, gazing admirably at the device. "Is there any chance I could ask for you to install this around the camp proper?"

Ari screwed up her nose momentarily before answering. "Possibly. You'd need to get the permission of each god or goddess for me to put the necessary wiring and computer systems in the cabins themselves. Logistically, there is no obstacle; my nanites are capable of the act."

Chiron nodded his head. "Thank you. I will endeavour to do so."

"Okay really," Travis spoke up, his limited patience having run out. "If nanites are this useful, why haven't we heard of them before?"

Ari glanced at them sideways, as if evaluating them. Whatever she saw must have been good, for she ended up answering them. "The Olympians have a vested interest in keeping all mortal advancements out of the hands of their subjects or children. Everything I can do with this stuff seems like magic, like the power of the gods themselves. Yet it is only technology, and _mortal_ technology at that. They intentionally hold you back," she explained.

Connor frowned. "Why? These advances could make demigods such an effective fighting force. If we had stuff like this, or even things _approaching_ what mortals have today, less people would have died in the last two wars!"

Ari shared a hesitant glance with Chiron. She was asking if he would act against her in any way. Even if the Trainer of Heroes had such desires, he would not say them. So he subtly shook his head.

Satisfied, she turned back to the brothers. "Connor, with modern tech converted to mythological means, demigods would be a major threat to the Olympian's rule over this planet," she revealed. "With my technology, not only would you be capable of fighting them, you'd win so badly they'd be finished in the blink of an eye."

Both Stoll brothers gasped. "But we'd never-" Travis began to

Ari scoffed. "The Olympians are paranoid on a good day, none more so than Thunderhead. I would not be surprised if, when he finally learns that the mortals are capable of fighting them, and that they _know about them_ , he will try to revert their civilization back to the Bronze Age."

Everyone but Ari sucked in a tense breath. "Do you really think he'd do that?" Connor asked.

"In a heartbeat," Ari affirmed.

Chiron was focusing on something else she'd said before that. "Ari," he began to ask, "what do you mean the mortals are aware of the Olympians?"

Ari leveled an unimpressed glare at his eyes. "Clear sighted mortals exist, Chiron. Now the Mist might cover the eyes of other mortals, but these ones can see right through it. The Mist is unfortunately only a single-hop interference mechanism. It is not capable of keeping the secrets of our world in the 20th century, never mind the 21st."

"How could they know about us if the other mortals cannot witness what these clear sighted ones see?" Chiron asked.

"Because that's not how mortals work," Ari shot back. "Billions of people across the world work for companies to help then achieve things they themselves are never personally aware of. Most mortals don't _have_ to see through the Mist. They only have to be told by their superiors to do something and they _will._ It's called the Chain of Command, a concept ironically enough started by Rome," she explained.

Chiron's face began to pale considerably. "You mean to tell me that if a clear sighted mortal told another to kill something the Mist told them was normal, they would?"

"Military individuals? Certainly," Ari confirmed.

"Di Immortales," he cursed. "Well I suppose I must rely on the fact that clear sighted mortals are rare."

Ari grimaced. "Yeah see, this is where my earlier statement about the Mist being single-hop only comes into play," she told them.

"That doesn't sound good," noted Travis.

By the bloodless pale sheen on Connor's face, he understood what Ari was saying. "Ari, please tell me you're using single-hop in another way," he begged.

Ari shook her head. "I'm not."

Chiron glanced between the two smartest people in the hall nervously. "What does single-hop mean?" he asked hesitantly.

"Okay. When a mortal sees a monster, what do they see?" she began.

"Something normal," Chiron stated.

"Like a car, or an odd person," Travis added.

"And when a clear sighted mortal sees it?"

"Well, they see the true monster, of course," Chiron said. He was unsure where she was going with this.

"Right," Ari agreed. "Now. What happens when the clear sighted mortal tells the normal mortal what is really there?"

"They're seen as crazy and tossed in the loony bin," Travis joked.

Connor got it. "Oh gods," he gasped.

Ari nodded grimly at him and Chiron. "That's what might happen on the street, yes. Connor seems to have gotten my message, but for Horse Butt and Travis here, I will elaborate." She ignored the glare the Trainer of Heroes sent her way. "This is the issue with the Mist's secrecy. It depends on human disbelief to cover any informational jumps it can't. That's _every_ jump besides the initial observation. This dependency falls apart if, say, the clear sighted mortal just happens to be part of the military."

 _Di Immortales,_ Chiron thought. He was speechless, hoping beyond hope she wasn't going where he thought.

"Imagine what happens when a few people all swear something dangerous is there that nobody else can see _in the military,_ " Ari continued. "They don't automatically assume crazy. They _investigate._ Now one or two people they might write off as nuts, but when more than that all submit multiple matching reports, despite never having met or even _heard of_ each other? No. The military assumes the worst automatically. They start testing. It might be innocuous at first, just to humor the big brass, but suddenly they find something interesting."

"What?" Travis asked quietly. He looked like he was on the edge of his seat.

"All the people who reported seeing these things are different somehow. They're not normal. Yet they are all similar to each other. So the military has a hunch and starts going over records. They find more people with this specialness. They then ask their people who can see these 'Unknowns', as the mythological world covered by Mist would most likely be called, if any of their video footage has captured them on the video, but normals just can't see it."

"This is going downhill extremely fast," Connor said.

"They might test hundreds of days of footage, but they're _not_ testing for crazy anymore. They know that _something_ is there, and if the special people are to be believed, it's not good. They can afford to have only one clear sighted mortal look at gigantic sections of video. The Mist protects the images of the mythological world on mortal technology, yes, but it has the same weakness as with normal sighting; it does not cover anything but the first jump," Ari continued explaining. "Eventually they find a video. They test it with all their special people. Then they test it with any willing civilians or those who haven't reported anything, yet are special. They don't expect a one hundred percent success rate; some people might be too scared to answer affirmatively, some might hate them, some might just be stubborn and unhelpful. But _someone_ will answer. And at that point, the military now has solid proof by way of elimination of factors that _something_ is out there most people can't even perceive, that according to the reports they have are a very real threat, and they _will_ act accordingly. They will set up a program to monitor, classify, and try and contain or at least limit the damage of mythological events. The secrecy will be broken. And because it's the military, they will try to find a way to defend themselves, the world, and the people they swore to protect. One way or the other."

"Ari…," Chiron barely spoke. He was terrified. All her logic was sound. Moreover, she was an extremely high level deity.

She was giving him a warning about what the world would soon undergo.

"This could be happening now. It could have happened years ago. Anytime since the invention of the Internet, actually. That's what would be necessary to coordinate this thing. The agency I speak of could already exist, Chiron," she suddenly said. "If they do, you can bet they are aware of what happened with these last wars you've been through. I don't look forward to their response."

And with that bombshell, Ari began walking to her room at the end of the hall of the Hermes cabin. She left behind a shellshocked group of two demigods and a centaur, all three imitating statues from Medusa's garden.

* * *

Ari sat down at the Hermes table, twiddling her thumbs. She glanced around at the campers filing into the eating area, filtering out to their respective tables. For the most part, anyways. Annabeth, the daughter of Athena, was sitting next to a black haired, sea green eyed young man. _That must be Percy._ Jason and Piper sat at the Zeus table, and they seemed to be kissing. Again.

Ari shook her head at their antics. _Young love,_ she thought with a smirk. Leo was at one end of the Hephaestus table tinkering with the gun Ari had given him. A woman sat next to him, flowing white robes straight out of a Greek textbook, holding onto the firestarter with a loving look in her eyes. She was exceedingly beautiful, with a kind smile and long lustrous caramel colored hair. Given the way she radiated energy like a fusion reactor she clearly was not mortal.

Ari was a little stumped as to who she could be. Clarisse had mentioned something about Leo's girlfriend being jealous of the crimson haired girl, but try as she might, Ari couldn't remember her name. _Carrie... Collie? No, Cally..,_ she thought, searching her memories like mad. If Leo's girlfriend was immortal, or worse, a goddess, Ari's plans would receive major monkey wrenches. It was important to know every higher being's name and domain so she could factor in their interference if they were going to be close by, in range to pick up on tiny little details.

Suddenly it clicked. _Calypso,_ Ari realized, staring in shock at the titaness merely twenty feet away from her. _Damn Leo, how'd you manage to snag her?_ she thought approvingly, in wonder of his skills with the ladies. Sure, he was attractive, in the cute mad genius sort of way. Ari saw him as a brother so she failed to understand Calypso's obvious attraction to him. _Well, at least she's not going to be a problem. Too lovestruck to think properly, it seems, not to mention her lack of domains._

Speaking of problems, a particularly annoying pair of them sat down on either side of her.

"Hey Ari!" the Stolls greeted her with mischievous smiles, making her roll her eyes.

"Stolls," she grumbled back, suddenly anxious for capture the flag.

"So we were thinking-," Travis began.

"That you could help us out-," Connor continued.

"No," Ari said firmly.

"Aww, come on Ari!" Connor pleaded, "you haven't even heard what we want yet!"

"Don't need to. You want some of my tech to pull off a prank," she replied calmly.

That caught the brothers by surprise. "How did you know that?" Connor asked.

"Simple," Ari began, holding up her fingers. "One: I have futuristic technology. Two: you two have a compulsive need to prank others, and Three: you came over to me, sat down on both sides of my spot, and acted overly nice. It's obvious."

Connor whistled. "Are you sure you're not a daughter of Athena?" he asked, clearly impressed.

"Positive. You don't have to be Athena's kid to be smart," she replied, rolling her eyes. "And the answer is still no. The first time you got your hands on my tech, you vaporized the front wall of your _own cabin!_ "

"Just don't give us anything dangerous then," Travis reasoned.

"Travis, all my tech is dangerous. Especially in your hands. Even if I gave you a block of metal you'd make it dangerous," Ari scoffed.

"How could we possibly make a block of metal dangerous?" Connor asked, slightly offended.

"I don't know, you'd think of something!" Ari said, exasperated. She waved her hands in the air for dramatic effect.

Instead of replying, the Stolls pouted their lips and widened their eyes. Just as they started to tremble their pouts, Ari shut her eyes. "No. That's not fair. You are not allowed to do puppy dog faces," she groaned, gaining chuckles from the rest of the Hermes campers. Apparently they'd arrived and were happily watching their cabin counselors torture the new girl.

"Thanks for the help, jackasses!" she yelled at the Hermes table, but it just advanced the chuckles into laughter. Ari risked opening her eyes slightly and instantly regretted that decision. The Stolls had left their seats and were kneeling on the table in front of her like dogs, puppy faces barely three inches from her face.

"Okay, okay, I give up!" Ari conceded, causing the Stolls to stand up on the table and whoop loudly. She sighed and opened her eyes fully. Chiron yelled at the brothers to get off the table, which they promptly did, landing on either side of her again. Ari rubbed her temples. This was going to be a long night.

"So, what are you going to make us?" Connor asked, beaming.

"The least dangerous, but also most useful thing I can think of," Ari grumbled, before holding out her hands, palms skyward. She could hear the gasps of awe go through the Hermes campers, seeing her abilities up close for the first time. A low hum rang out for a couple of seconds, then two flat squares of Forcium appeared in her hands. Ari's face gained a smirk, and she held one out to each Stoll brother.

"What are they?" Connor asked, while Travis flipped his over, trying to see any markings. He was about to bite a corner of the metal when Ari whacked him on the head, took the device from him, and slapped it onto the sleeve of his orange shirt. The lines engraved into the square began to glow, and Travis promptly disappeared.

"These are cloaking devices," Ari told Connor, smiling at the suitably shocked face he had on. While he was stunned, she grabbed his device and slapped it onto his sleeve as well. He disappeared, and she heard a shriek come from his position.

"Ari! I look like a ghost!" Connor's voice yelled, panic in his tone.

Travis' voice sounded from where he had been sitting. "No way, Connor, that's what I look like!"

"Dude, this is so cool!"

The two brothers continued describing their experiences to each other while Ari waited for the other shoe to drop.

Connor, the one who had proven to be more intelligent, was who asked. "Ari, how do you turn it off?"

She took a sip of her drink slowly, drawing it out on purpose. Travis broke the silence as soon as her cup touched the table.

"Well?"

Ari burped loudly and chuckled. "You're both pretty smart. Figure it out."

"WHAT?!" the sons of Hermes shrieked.

She smiled and got up to grab more food. She glanced over her shoulder with a shit eating grin. "That's for giving me the puppy dog faces," she told them, laughing at their spluttered responses.

* * *

"Ugh, I need some real food," Ari groaned in disgust, pushing away her plate. Mortal food was great, exquisite even, but only for a time. She needed something with a little more kick.

 _I wonder where Chiron keeps the ambrosia?_ she absently thought. She stood up from the Hermes table and glanced around, trying to find the centaur. Her gaze travelled across the campers happily eating, drinking, and laughing.

But there was one who was not.

A young girl, maybe seven or eight, sat cross legged next to the giant bonfire. She was staring intently at the flames, occasionally shifting hot coals around with a long stick.

 _What the hell?_ Ari wondered, getting up from her seat, all thought of godly food forgotten. She finally noticed Chiron at the head table and almost smacked herself in the forehead for forgetting where the Camp leaders sat. When she met his eyes, she noticed he was glancing between her and the girl, a knowing smile on his face. Despite her discussion about mortal agencies and the weaknesses of the Mist earlier that day, he seemed okay. Ari hadn't meant to terrify him, just to warn him about what might be coming.

She was glad he was taking it well.

Chiron raised his eyebrows at her continued staring. Ari briefly stuck her tongue out at him in reply, before walking over to the bonfire.

"Hey there," Ari greeted the girl, trying to sound friendly.

The girl looked up at her with a kind smile, shifting some more coals almost absentmindedly. "Greetings," she said.

Both of them looked at each other in comfortable silence for a few seconds, before Ari's patience ran out. "May I sit?" she asked.

The girl shrugged and turned to look back at the flames. "If it pleases you. I could be persuaded to welcome the company," she replied with a light smile.

"Okay then," Ari chuckled, moving to the right side of the girl. She deftly lowered herself onto the ground, legs outstretched. Since she had used her hands to support her weight by pressing them against the ground, her palms were coated in dirt; she clapped them together a few times to get rid of it. Turning her head to look straight at the other girl, she was puzzled by something.

 _This girl is way too eloquent for her age. Daughter of Athena, perhaps?_

"You going to join in on Capture the Flag?" Ari asked.

"No," came the short reply.

Ari was puzzled by this, and felt an urge to find out why she was sitting by the fire all alone. "Why not?"

The girl glanced over at Chiron, and the two seemed to have a silent conversation. Finally she sighed, looking back to the fire. "I am not allowed."

Ari's eyebrows shot up. "Why can't you play?"

Letting out a sigh, the girl shook her head. "It would be unfair," she said.

Now Ari was confused. "Why?"

"You will figure it out," came the cryptic answer, before the girl fell silent. It seemed that was all Ari was going to get on this subject.

The two girls sat there, staring at the fire, for just enough time to get Ari fidgeting. The silence and boredom were driving her crazy.

"What's your name?" Ari asked abruptly.

The girl's mouth edged into a slight smile. "My name is of no importance," she said.

Ari rolled her eyes. "Oh come on," she scoffed, "everyone's name is important. It's a part of who you are!"

The girl turned her head slightly and raised an eyebrow. "If you believe so, then what is yours?"

"I'm Ari. See? Simple."

"Hmm. In that case, my name is Hestia," she replied, turning back to the fire.

"Nice to meet you then, Hestia," Ari said, before her mind caught up. One could almost hear the gears clicking into place. As soon as they did, her focus snapped into overdrive, and she stared at the girl in shock. _Ooohhh shit._

"You wouldn't happen to be the _goddess_ named Hestia, by any chance?" she tentatively inquired.

"Indeed," the girl, no, _goddess_ answered.

"Heh," Ari gulped nervously.

"Do not worry child, many mistake me for a young demigod," Hestia assured her.

"That's not why I'm nervous," Ari accidentally let slip.

Hestia raised an eyebrow and turned to regard her fully. "Oh? What troubles you?"

Ari had to think about it. Hestia was an Olympian. Having her as an ally could be beneficial, especially if she knew Ari was family. Well, Ari _assumed_ that was the case; she didn't yet have proof. However, Hestia was also the oldest sister of Thunderhead, which could be a problem. The option to have a member of her family who actually liked her and knew what she was won out though. There was also the more… _personal_ relationship Hestia and Ari's past self shared.

"If I am to tell you, I have to ask that you'll keep it secret," Ari said.

Hestia smiled kindly. "Of course."

" _Even_ if it affects Thunderhead," Ari pressed.

Hestia cocked her head sideways. "Who is Thunderhead?"

Ari looked her straight in the eye. "Your brother," she said.

Hestia's face was crestfallen. "Oh no. Are you with his child?" she asked, genuinely concerned.

Ari had to mouth the sentence to herself several times before it sunk in, causing her to sputter. "Uh, no. Just… no. Not now, not _ever_ , would… _that_ happen," she declared.

"Then what other business could you have with… Thunderhead?" Hestia wondered, smirking at the nickname.

Ari breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. "Fixing his rule," she said, projecting a small drop of her existence onto Hestia's mind.

The goddess gasped at the sensation, glaring at her. "You are not mortal," she realized.

"Even less than you are," Ari confirmed with a slow nod.

Hestia snarled and conjured a fireball in her hand. "Know that if you threaten my family or our children in any way…" she began, though Ari understood the threat.

"Easy, easy," Ari said, snuffing out the fireball with her hand, "I'm not trying to hurt anyone. Hear me out, okay?"

Hestia's only response was to glare harder.

Ari breathed in to relax, hoping she was making the correct decision. "Hestia, my goal is not to cause distress to anyone," she began, "but I've been sent here with a mission that must be completed. Under the 'guidance'," she scoffed, "of the Olympians, the world has nearly been destroyed four times. Once is usually all the chances that are given to a custodianship, and you lot have been given far more chances than you should have by all rights," she explained.

Hestia narrowed her eyes. "You speak of things unmentioned for eons," she growled, crossing her arms. She was obviously trying to be menacing, but her form was that of an eight year old. The effort came across as cute. "How do you know of this?"

Ari chuckled. Leaning in close to the goddess, her grin widened mischievously. "It's nice to see you again, _flammula_ ," she whispered. For a split second her appearance became tougher, more stern, and yet somehow even more attractive. The form was also clearly older and much more mature than her eighteen year old demigoddess form, rivalling Aphrodite with curves and swells in all the right places. She'd momentarily made her body look like her previous self. A blink of the eye and she looked like her new self again.

Hestia gasped and blushed golden. "P… Progress?" she hesitantly squeaked, not sure of herself.

Ari laughed softly and drew away. "It is I," she confirmed with a dramatic twirl of her hand.

"How are you here?" Hestia wondered.

Ari just shrugged. "I was the closest to Terra, so mother sent me."

Hestia blinked in confusion. "That's the only reason?"

"The only one I was told, though of course there are others I wasn't," Ari muttered.

Hestia gulped as she recalled what they had been speaking about before the revelation. "How long do we have?" she almost whimpered.

Ari tilted her head in confusion. "How long do you have?" she repeated, her tone questioning.

Hestia nodded, clarifying her inquiry. "How long until you," she said, almost shaking in fear, "...replace us?"

"Ah," Ari said, understanding the nervousness. "I don't know; I'm taking it slow this time."

"And when you do? What will happen to us?" Hestia pressed, terror on her small face. "The usual?"

Ari raised her eyebrows, finally truly grasping why Hestia was acting like this. "Oh, no. No no no no no. Don't worry," she assured her, changing her tone to that of a friend. "That's not happening this time."

Now Hestia was confused. "Why not?"

"Do I really need a reason not to want to kill everyone?" Ari asked, offended.

"From what little I know of you before we came into being and how you were with…," she gulped and whispered " _with me._ " She returned to normal volume. "And how you like carrying out punishment, yes actually," Hestia proclaimed.

Ari winced at that, the assumptions drawing up loads of bad memories even if there were some _extremely_ great ones starring her and the then very young hearth goddess. "I'm… not like that anymore," she muttered.

Hestia's other eyebrow joined her first at the top of her small forehead. "Explain."

"I'm Ari. Progress I may be, but my personality is new. My old self has been replaced, and I'm much happier for it," Ari said.

"What being has the power to do that to you?" Hestia asked, a small gasp escaping her tiny frame.

"Mother, of course," Ari scoffed in reply. "While I am grateful to no longer be the monster that came before me, she left the memories."

Hestia's mouth dropped open. "How many?"

"All of them," Ari sighed in response. "I've got so much to make up for, it's not remotely funny."

"Oh," the little goddess said, looking down at the ground with a blush. Ari just looked back into the fire, watching it dance and flare with energy. She fed a tiny amount of her own power to it, smirking when the flames reached higher.

"I'm sorry," Hestia apologized after a while of silence.

Ari's eyebrow raised. "Whatever for?"

"Assuming bad intentions. And for the memories no doubt brought up because of that assumption," Hestia explained.

"Bah," Ari scoffed, waving a hand lamely in her direction. "No biggie. Plus, some of the memories, _ours_ especially, are really _quite good,_ " she teased with a wink.

Hestia tilted her head in confusion despite blushing golden again. "What is a 'biggie'?"

Ari just laughed in response. "We'll get along just fine, _flammula,_ " she grinned.

The little goddess of Hearth and Home just crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue.

* * *

Chiron stood up from the head table and waited.

He did this every Friday. He'd done so for centuries.

And yet still the demigods seemed incapable of noticing that he was trying to address them.

He sighed and shared an exasperated look with Dyonisis. The god simply shrugged and summoned another Diet Coke can.

Chiron shook his head. One of these days…

He raised his hands to his mouth and cupped them like a megaphone. "CAMPERS!" he cried out.

Almost instantly all noise in the amphitheater died. The only sounds were those of the Hearth crackling and some hurried scribbling from the Athena table.

Of course the children of the goddess of Battle Plans would know the game's schedule.

"It is time for our weekly game of Capture the Flag!" Chiron continued after a cursory glance around the assembled children of the gods.

As usual, the roar of applause and cheer was immense. He clapped his hands to gain their attention. When he had it, he recited his usual speech. The same one he'd been saying for centuries, the one which had only been modified to add inquiry limitations. He said it a little differently every time, of course, to prevent boredom and repetition, but the general outline was the same.

"You know the rules! The Forest is the battleground. The creek is the boundary line. The team that brings their enemy's flag over the boundary line wins! No maiming. Magic items are allowed! Oh, I suppose technical items are also," Chiron added abruptly, noticing Ari tapping her wrist and Leo Valdez waving the gun he'd somehow appropriated from her in the air. "Just please keep it below cabin destroying levels, Valdez," he warned, drawing laughter from the crowd.

"Myself and Will Solace of the Apollo Cabin will be acting as medics. Choose your weapons!" Another lift of his arms caused the invisible wind spirits to clear away all the food and drink, among with the dishes. They proceeded to dump the entirety of the camp Armory on the tables instead.

All at once a commotion erupted. It was chaos. The _clang_ of armor being moved, the _shwing_ sound of swords and weapons sailing through the air as they were tested. Music to his ears.

"Chiron," a young female voice spoke from his side.

His heart rate shot up, but as he was in no danger, the centaur managed to hide it. "Yes, Ari?"

"Can we do something… different, for this game?" she asked. Her tone wasn't exactly one of a request, though.

He sighed loudly and resisted the sudden urge to rub his forehead. "What do you want to do?"

She smirked at him. "I'd like to have the entire camp on one team, with myself, Hestia, and Dionysus on the other," she revealed.

His blood ran cold. "Three gods cannot play in these games," he stated. Then he realized something. "Wait, that means you can't play regardless!"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm playing. So is Hestia. We'd have to ask Wine Dude over here," she said a little louder, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. Dionysus heard her, for he locked his haze on them curiously.

"You all three have too much power to be allowed," Chiron restated, hoping that his vague use of the word 'power' wouldn't tip off the God of Wine about Ari.

Ari scoffed loudly. "Oh please. If Hestia and Dionysus limited their power to only that of a demigod, it would be fine. As for me, I was planning on offering to just forgo any divine power entirely," she explained.

Chiron raised his eyebrows. "You believe you could get them to agree to this… arrangement?" he asked doubtfully.

She shrugged. "Hestia already has." She turned around and eyed Dionysus critically. "Yo Wine Dude, you up for some Capture the Flag, provided you limit your power to that of one of your kids?"

Something that Chiron had never seen, and in fact thought impossible, occurred then. It was an indicator of just how much change Ari's presence would affect on their world.

Dionysus _smiled_.

"You actually convinced Horse Butt to allow me and Hestia to play?" he asked, grinning.

Ari glanced back over her shoulder at Chiron with a questioning eyebrow. The centaur sighed, finally giving in to the urge to rub the stress out of his forehead, but nodded nonetheless.

"Yep!" Ari told the God of Wine. "I also had to sacrifice my ability to use any of my own divine gifts. But hey, if it lets you and Hestia play, it's worth it," she informed him.

Dionysus shrugged. "I'm game." His features suddenly warped, and in his place was a younger, much more fit version of the God of Wine.

"I shall announce it to the camp," Chiron agreed.

"CAMPERS!"

Silence descended upon them again. It was faster this time, since usually he only called again to actually start the game.

"Campers! As you know, we have a new camp member. I was originally concerned about her power in these games, but she has offered me a deal about that. It is actually helpful to two others of our number, two who should have long ago been allowed to participate in our games, but have long been forgotten. She has proposed that the entire camp move to one team, with herself, Lady Hestia, and Lord Dionysus on the other."

You could hear crickets chirping. The new silence was somehow even more quiet than the previous one. Most of the demigods had dropped their mouths open.

"But Chiron!" Annabeth spoke up. "As much as I'd be honored to fight an Olympian, they're _gods!_ It's unfair!"

A general noise of agreement rose from the various tables. Chiron raised his hands for silence and got it.

"Yes, ordinarily it would be so. However, they have agreed to limit their power to that of a demigod of their own, provided they are allowed to play." Dionysus nodded to show his agreement, drawing shocked gasps from his new appearance. Chiron sought out the Goddess of the Hearth. He found an eight year old girl siding near the fire, jaw completely open and staring wide eyed with disbelief at him and Ari.

Murmuring from the demigods broke out, hundreds of discussions on what to make of the request. They were unaware just how much power Ari had over them, and that this really _wasn't_ a request, but he'd let them believe it to be. Eventually a consensus seemed to be formed, both about the decision and how to announce it.

The God of Wine's cabin counselor stood up first. "We support the decision to allow our father and Lady Hestia the ability to play in the Games, provided the limitations stated are agreed upon and enforced," Castor said loudly.

Malcolm, a Son of Athena, stood up from his table. "Athena cabin agrees under the same terms."

Percy stood from his table. "Are you kidding? I'm all for this!" Annabeth was next to him and laughed along with everyone else at his antics.

And so it went, until every table had agreed. The Stoll brothers even did a small break dance on top of their table, despite Chiron's repeated demands for them to get off.

With the final vote tallied to all for and zero against, the Trainer of Heroes raises his arms for silence. "The Camp has spoken. For the first time in our history, the gods themselves will be participating in our Games! They have agreed to limit their power to one of their own children, so as to make it fair. We probably will mix them in with other teams in the future, but for this game, Ari has requested that she, Lady Hestia, and Lord Dionysus be on one team, with the camp on the other!" he reminded them all.

The roar of approval was larger than the one for the announcement of the games themselves. "You're going down, punks!" A daughter of Ares roared, almost screaming.

Chiron had the next in the series of shocks his immortal existence had received recently when Dionysus roared back. "In your dreams, children of Ares!" He had never seen the God of Wine this happy or… normal before.

And then he realized. He figured out exactly what Ari was doing with this. She'd performed a masterstroke of manipulation. Not only had she pulled the camp director out of the slump he'd been in since being sentenced to this job, she had included Hestia into activities that normally a god or goddess could not participate in. She had also forced the campers to subconsciously create a voting system _and_ allowed them to interact with deities _directly,_ not only opening the door to their parents interacting with them, but _somehow bypassing the Ancient Laws._

He turned to see her grinning widely at him. He could only ask one thing. " _How?!_ "

Ari tilted her head teasingly and cross her arms. "How what, Chiron?" she asked innocently.

He was not buying that.

"How did you manage to bypass the _Ancient Laws?!_ " he whispered to her severely.

Her grin turned into a full on smirk. "Oh, that. Well it would stand to reason the being who _wrote_ them would know any and all loopholes present, especially the ones put there on purpose."

Chiron's mind was blank. He was stunned. In front of him was the being who created the laws deities themselves were controlled by. He had a sinking feeling brought upon by all the revelations he'd experienced since meeting this girl, the feeling that he _knew who she was._

"You're Progress," he stated. It was not a question.

"Yes."

That one word almost made him faint. She pressed a hand to his side once she noticed his swaying, pumping some kind of energy into him that jolted him awake and back into fighting form.

"What do you intend to do here?" he asked hesitantly.

"Remember how I told you my new self replaced my old self?" she asked.

His eyes widened in further realization. "So my fear of you is misplaced?"

"You are right to fear my power. I _am_ here to make some adjustments. But unlike my previous self, you don't need to fear _me._ I want this as peaceful a transition, if it even comes to that, as possible," she explained. She waved her hand around, guiding him to take in the two Olympians now getting geared up and actually _laughing_ in Dionysus' case with the demigods. "I want to make this happen more. Don't get me wrong, Chiron, change is coming, but I want it to be progressive change."

The Trainer of Heroes smiled gratefully at her once he'd absorbed her statements. "Then in this case I will do whatever it takes to help you reach that goal."

She grinned at him and patted him on the flanks. "Thank you, Chiron." She stepped away from him and into the crowd, waving back over her shoulder. "I have a battle to plan. Later!"

Chiron felt something he'd only felt once recently, with the arrival of Percy Jackson. This time it was much more pronounced, though.

Hope flooded his being, Hestia glanced at him with a knowing smile, and the Hearth soared into the air.

* * *

The thrusters on Ari's suit were barely at half power, but she flew through the forest like a jet, dodging demigods and trees like slalom gates. _This is too easy,_ she smirked, seeing the river that split the team's territories. With both hands gripping the flag pole, she blew right past the shocked faces of Percy and Annabeth, the latter covered in a visible stealth field emanating from her baseball hat. "Nice trick, Annabeth," Ari chuckled as she landed on the other side of the river, planting the flag into the ground.

Annabeth took off the hat and looked at her astounded. "You saw me?"

Ari nodded and tapped the side of her glasses. "Magic or no magic, all you're doing is bending light. It's trivial for technology to detect."

"Oh," Annabeth said, looking discouraged.

Ari just shrugged. "Hey, I said I wouldn't use any magical powers for Capture the Flag. Nothing about using my tech," she smirked.

Annabeth looked like she was about to reply, but Percy cut in. "Ari, what's going on with the flag?"

"Huh? What do you mean-," Ari began, turning around to look at the flag. The previously sea green background was changing to a silver color, but that wasn't what worried her. Instead of a caduceus, which Ari assumed would be present when the Hermes cabin won, a orange spiral was winding out from the center of the flag.

"Oh shit!" she cried out, running over to the flag. This was _not_ good. The stupid flag was about to expose her for what she was! With a quick look back to the forest, seeing only Percy and Annabeth, she decided to take the loss of those two. They already suspected something was off with her anyways. Ari laid her hands on the actual fabric of the flag and mustered a little of her power; just enough to override the center symbol and turn it into a caduceus. This had the side effect of making her glow silver for a few moments, radiating an ounce of power out into the world. Not enough to alert the Olympians, but _definitely_ enough to clue the two demigods present into the fact that she wasn't like them.

Ari finished just in the nick of time, because right after the caduceus replaced the orange spiral, an army of demigods burst out of the woods. Trailing them were the two gods who'd been allowed to join the Games, laughing with each other and talking with the demigods around them about how much it took to break their defence.

She had been smart to put the Goddess of Home and the God of Parties on Flag Defense duty. She had been smarter to provide a weak shield generator to Hestia for creation of a fortified position. Apparently it took the demigod army the entire time she flew after their flag to break through.

Thankfully Percy and Annabeth still had their heads turned towards her, so their shocked faces were not yet visible. Smiling to the rest of the camp, she walked up between them and put her arms around their shoulders.

"Say nothing. We will discuss this later," Ari ordered, glaring at both of them in turn. They just nodded and instantly donned their normal smiles. _Damn they are good at this,_ she lamented.

Chiron galloped up and saw the flag on the other side of the river. He looked at Ari, slightly confused, but his look read 'Did you do this?'

Ari realized he must be talking about the imperfect caduceus she had hastily imprinted on the flag, so she nodded, mouthing 'They know', inclining her head slightly to the demigods she still had in her arms. Chiron just raised an eyebrow and shook his head before turning to address the crowd.

"Campers! Cabin Eleven has won the game! As always, they and their allies shall be given the first picks for shower times, and are exempt from cleaning duties until the next game!" the centaur announced.

A huge number of demigods groaned, but the Hermes campers burst through the lines, grabbing Ari and hoisting her up. The Stolls raced past Percy and Annabeth, grabbing the flag out of the ground and carrying it aloft proudly. The throng of campers paraded back to the cabin, singing victory songs and joined by the cabins that had allied with them originally, while Ari tossed on top of them complaining. Her cries of "Hey! Stop guys, you're making me dizzy!" and "Put me down this instant!" rang upon ignoring ears, as the crowd of demigods surged up the steps of Cabin Eleven and through the doors.

Hestia and Dionysus looked at each other, shrugged, and followed them. They beamed at the thought of finally interacting with their family, and it was all thanks to one abnormal demigod.

* * *

Back by the river, Annabeth finally found her voice. "Percy, she's not a demigod," she said, looking gravely at her boyfriend.

"No kidding. That energy... She's got to be a goddess," Percy agreed, face full of dread.

"So much for peace," Annabeth grumbled, crossing her arms.

Percy wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, hugging her in an attempt at comfort. "If she's here to start another war, I'll stop her."

Annabeth looked up at him. "You? One on one with a goddess?"

"I've done it before. Anything to protect you," he replied.

Annabeth smiled. That was all the confirmation she needed. "Percy, you're not just protecting me anymore."

Percy's eyes widened. "What? Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

She nodded and smiled, rubbing her stomach. "We're going to be parents."

Percy's smile grew so wide his face looked like it might break. He picked Annabeth up by her sides and twirled her in the air. "I'm gonna be a dad!" he yelled, the new threat to peace forgotten for the time being.

Annabeth's smile matched his, and when he put her down on the ground, she leaned into his ear. She whispered something that made Percy's cheeks positively _glow_ red, his head nodding vigorously. She chuckled and led him hand in hand to the Poseidon cabin. When they opened the door, she pulled him inside with a deep kiss, closing the door via her foot on the outside world.


	8. CH08 - Oracle

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 08**

 _Oracle_

Ari was in her room in the new Cabin Eleven, pacing in front of a metallic orb that hovered just at her hand height. It was about the size of a bowling ball and had orange patterns rapidly appearing, flowing across it, and disappearing. She was nervously waiting for something, looking over her shoulder randomly as if to see if anyone was eavesdropping on her.

 _Hurry up, damn it_ , she scolded the orb, wringing her hands together. The stress of having to hide who she was all the time was going to give her gray hair, she just knew it. And for a being such as herself, that was mighty impressive.

Deciding that moping wouldn't help the job finish faster, she reflected over her first day at Camp. Despite the Stolls blowing up their cabin, forcing her to reveal a lot about herself, it was still a good day. She'd met five of the Seven, befriending them almost instantly. True, that was more on their friendliness than her own, but she had not scared them off.

She'd implemented organization and voting among the population. She'd clued the gods into the loophole present in the Ancient Laws, _her_ laws, that allowed them to interact with their children's and the mortal world without any consequences. Moreover she'd revealed that deities were not all aloof or evil to the demigods themselves, an incredibly important milestone.

Ari had even reconnected with a lost flame, pardon the pun, of her previous self.

Hestia.

The thought of her was incredibly distracting so she buried it for now. The good memories would always be there to review later, after all.

Overall, despite sticking out as an abnormally powerful demigod, nobody who shouldn't be was any the wiser of her true purpose.

Well, except for Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.

She'd have to corner the two of them, force them to swear on the Styx not to reveal anything. Not an attractive aspect of this cloak and dagger plan she was doing. But it was necessary to preserve peace as long as possible. If not for the gods, then for their children; they deserved at least that much.

Ari had also become fast friends with that daughter of Ares, something that would help when it finally became time for his trial. Provided the god of War had not changed his ways, he was definitely in for some serious stuff. How to handle the trials took over her focus, causing her to fret about gray hair again.

Before she could _actually_ start growing gray hair, the orb let out a pleasant tone, indicating it's job was finished. Ari practically clung to the orb as she lay her fingers on it, getting the results of the job through a mental link. And what she saw was not what she wanted.

"Damn it!" she cursed, going right back to pacing. "Damn the Fates and their senses!" she yelled, thankful the rooms were soundproof.

She had a massive dilemma. To start reorganizing the systems of governance on Terra, she needed to use a lot more of her power. But that was like sending up a giant flag saying "Hey Zeus! I'm over here!" and would undermine the entire purpose of her plan; the Lord of the Sky could not become aware of her true nature just yet.

Now, she had a solution to that issue; she could turn the essence density of all demigods up, WAY up, making them more god than mortal, which would successfully cloak her power output. The new cabin had been searching for monitoring mechanisms on Terra since it was built, and had finally found them.

Ari snorted. Those systems must have been designed by an absolute moron.

They were looking for spikes in power output, not the overall average level. Because of that oversight, the plan might work. The problem was, the amount needed for her to hide was about eighty percent.

The Fates did not need anything like a detection mechanism, and would take notice of the demigods turned gods at seventy percent (ish) density. They would then start handing out domains and titles like no tomorrow; another giant red flag. Even though the difference was a measly ten percent, it was more than enough to sabotage her plan.

The only option was to neutralize the Fates, which was certainly in her power to do; but the job of the Fates was mandatory to continued order on Terra, so she couldn't just get rid of them without a replacement. No demigods could be used since they were monitored by the Olympians, and they wouldn't be tuned to the essence of Fate anyways.

"Hmm," Ari muttered, rubbing her chin. Suddenly an idea occurred to her.

How did Camp Half-Blood ordain quests for demigods? Someone or something with the gift of foresight would have to be present, and anything attuned to rupturing the flow of Time would be a perfect candidate for receiving the role of Fate.

The girl racked her brain for any knowledge of foresight gifted beings in Greek mythos. There was obviously Apollo, god of prophecy, but Ari shuddered at the god of 'poetry' being in charge of people's lives. There was that snake-demon woman Lamia, but the whole 'eater of children' bit took her out as a potential candidate. She could always just return the domain to Ananke…

Wait. _Snakes… Why is that ringing a bell?_

Suddenly she gasped. "Of course! The Oracle! There must be one here at camp," she exclaimed, rubbing her hands together. The Oracle had always been a clear sighted mortal female, and thus was likely not watched by anyone other than Apollo himself. And Ari could definitely handle Apollo alone.

"Excellent," she almost cackled, then covered her mouth in shock. "No cackling, Ari, you're not a witch," she scolded herself.

 _Right. Let's find you, little Oracle,_ she thought. She extended her presence across the camp, albeit at a very low level. No good would come from exposing herself on a mission explicitly to prevent being exposed.

A little ways into the forest she found her quarry. It seemed the Oracle was currently being hosted in the body of a red-headed teenager, who was currently asleep.

...Or so it seemed.

The girl must have known she was coming because she was faking sleep very well. Not well enough, but Ari gave her credit for trying. She noticed the dagger in her hand, clenched tightly. The girl seemed not to know what was coming for her, just that _something_ was.

 _Like that little butter knife will even scratch me,_ Ari thought smugly. Then she drew back her presence to her body, simultaneously entering the coordinates of the cave into a small screen that had just appeared on her arm.

 _This suit was one of my best ideas,_ she thought, patting herself on the back, _It allows me to do so many 'godly' activities without actually using my power. If only the mortals of Terra knew how far technology can go._ Putting a smile on her face, she punched a green button that had appeared; a low hum rang out, and then she was gone from her room. Much like things she unsummoned, she was simply _gone._

* * *

The same low hum sounded in the Oracle's cave, then Ari appeared out of thin air. Her hair had some ice on it from the trip, so she ran a hand through her hair to get rid of it. Then she took in her surroundings. The cave was nice, as caves go, and had a lot of easels set up in various places with paintings on them. Some of the paintings depicted quite gruesome images.

 _Poor kid,_ she thought with pity, _If this is what the Oracle shows you, you should be glad I'm here._ The cave had a carpeted floor, and torches lined the walls. There was a giant 60 inch TV on one wall in front of a couch, and what looked like the entrance to a bedchamber on another wall. That must be where the Oracle was, feigning sleep. Smirking, the crimson haired girl started walking towards the entrance when she heard a prayer to Apollo.

 _Lord Apollo, I know you can hear me. Something is here. Please help,_ it said, and Ari realized it was the Oracle.

 _DAMN IT,_ she thought, and promptly activated her suit's cloaking ability. She heard a flash, as the Olympians called it, and felt the signature of a godly presence.

Yep, it was Apollo all right. Come to see to the urgent cry of his precious Oracle. Ari grumbled, knowing this would make her job that much harder, but resigned that it must be done. So she entered the bedchamber and found the sun god embracing the red-haired girl. She was weeping, a frightened look on her face.

 _Come on,_ she thought, _I'm not THAT bad._ Then it occurred to her. The Spirit of Delphi must have shown her something horrible to prevent it's own demise. That really pissed her off, considering it was just another example of higher beings exploiting lower ones. That is not how the universe was supposed to work.

"Lord Apollo, thank you for coming," the Oracle girl said, still sniffling, but not trembling. Fear was still evident in her eyes, but she seemed to feel protected with a god there. _Not that she needs protecting,_ Ari snarled, again cursing Delphi in her mind.

"Anytime, Red," Apollo said, laying a comforting hand on the shoulder of the girl. He seemed to care for her, more so than Ari remembered of his other Oracles. Which sucked, given what she was about to do. Surely she could find someone else?

Probably, but letting the current Fates do what they liked with proceedings on Terra was not up for grabs, and they'd have to be eliminated eventually anyways. _Might as well kill multiple birds with one stone_.

Ari sighed, and let the cloak drop. Apollo seemed to notice, since in the blink of an eye he had a golden bow shimmering with sunlight in his hands, an arrow notched and pointing straight at her head. That must have been quite the sight to Red, as Ari guessed she was named; the sun god aiming a glowing bow at a crimson haired girl who had just appeared out of nowhere clad in some kind of spy suit.

"Apollo, you can put that down," Ari said, pushing the arrow, and by extension the bow, out of her face. Apollo was naturally surprised, given that she'd just touched one of his symbols of power and hadn't even blinked. She just smirked at his expression.

"Who are you?" the god of the sun asked dangerously, his bow still out but no longer trained on her.

"I'm Ari. Pleased to meet you, Apollo," she said, extending a hand to shake.

" _Lord_ Apollo," he corrected, glaring at her.

She glared right back, crossing her arms, a bit miffed he hadn't taken the offered handshake. "No."

"Excuse me?" he asked, shock on his face.

"I said no. What, can't handle not being called by your title?" Ari teased.

Apollo growled at her, narrowing his eyes. Then he suddenly gained mirth in them, and he laughed. "You've got spirit, girl. Other gods would not be as forgiving."

Now it was Ari's turn to make light of the situation. "Most of the gods have sticks up their rears. I'm not surprised."

Apollo was always one of the most forgiving gods, but even he had a limit. "You need to learn to respect your betters, _girl,_ " he sneered.

"Wow, your face does _not_ look good when you sneer. _Damn_."

Apollo looked incredulous. "Did you hear me?" he bellowed.

"Yes, I heard you. And I do respect my betters. You just aren't one of them," Ari said, egging him on. She had a new plan; taunt Apollo into unleashing his power on her, so that she could use hers without raising a red flag. Zeus wouldn't look twice at his son using power to smite an insolent demigod, and his would cloak hers.

"What are you doing, Ari?" Red asked, fear for the girl evident on her face. Ari just winked at her.

"Red, close your eyes. Now," Apollo ordered, seething.

Guessing what he was about to do, Red clamped her eyes shut hard, and turned to look at the wall. Apollo expected the crimson haired Ari to do the same, but she just stood there, arms crossed and smirking, eyes staring straight at him, egging him on.

"Fine then, you can fry in the presence of my true form," the god of the sun said, before going supernova.

Ari simply stared at him, drinking in the power radiating off his godly essence. And then she began to shimmer, a silver aura appearing around her.

It was in that moment Apollo realized just how badly he'd messed up.

* * *

He found himself forced back into his normal form. A moment later the three of them were in a copy of the bedchamber. This room was coated in metal with glowing orange lines running throughout it, looking an awful lot like the same material that made up Ari's suit. Apollo gaped at her, all signs of his rage evaporated.

"Red, you can open your eyes now," she said, looking at the young Oracle.

The girl gradually turned to her, a look of disbelief on her freckled face. No doubt Red expected Ari to be vaporized as most would have assumed she would be. "You're not a demigod, are you?

Ari shook her head, smiling. She knew Apollo knew that they were now in her domain. Well, _one_ of her domains. He didn't need to know that. She could do anything she wanted to either of them. But she was only here to accomplish a goal; temporarily pissing off Apollo was just an improvised step in the plan.

Admittedly a very _entertaining_ step.

"Sorry I had to do that, Apollo. Couldn't risk dear old dad noticing my power output, now could I?" she asked rhetorically, a sad smile on her lips. "Thank you for the cover, by the way."

"What?" Apollo asked, looking terribly confused.

Ari sighed. Of course Zeus would never teach younger gods about what they truly were. "When you went 'supernova', showed me your true form, your energy caused a momentary sensory blackout in this area," she explained. "That allowed me to then utilize my power whilst anyone watching were blinded."

"What are you? And why did you not just use your power outright if you can override me?" Apollo asked.

"What I am is not of anyone's concern yet. I didn't override you until you caused the blackout because I need to remain hidden for my plan to work."

Apollo didn't like the sound of that. "What plan?"

Ari laughed. "Relax, it's not bad. No wars or anything. Well, provided I remain hidden until I am ready. If I'm exposed earlier, a certain loudmouth Thunderhead will definitely start a war," she chuckled, then abruptly grimaced. "A war I would have to stop. Forcefully." The way she said this made Apollo gulp, not wanting to be on the receiving end of that force.

"So… why are you here, in my Oracle's home?" he asked her tentatively, not wanting to piss her off. He was pretty sure he knew what she was, and that did not bode well for any of the Olympians. Without his domains of Truth and Prophecy he would have no clue about her at all.

Ari smiled at him knowingly. "Your guess is correct, Apollo. I am on Terra for the reason you think. However, I'm trying it a new way. Instead of a clean sweep I will be giving the Olympian gods a chance. That's actually why I'm remaining hidden for now." She sighed. "As for what I'm doing here, I need the assistance of a certain foresighted individual to do something for me."

Apollo watched her suspiciously, glancing over at his Oracle wearily. "What exactly is this 'something'?"

Ari smiled, then looked to the mortal girl. "Red here knows."

Apollo looked to his Oracle, brow raised. She had a look of fear on her face.

"You're the monster Delphi warned me about," Red gasped in realization, grabbing onto Apollo for shielding.

"Delphi warned you about me, yes. But I am no monster," Ari said, still smiling kindly. "The very fact the spirit painted me as such just convinces me even more that this course of action is the best one."

"What do you mean?" Apollo asked, gaining an edge of fear to his tone.

"This," Ari announced, holding her palms to face Red. She seemed to concentrate, and Red began groaning in pain. Her eyes glowed green, casting light of the same color onto the metal walls. Green smoke poured out of her mouth, flowing into one of the crimson haired girl's palms. It started condensing into a compact ball. Snakes could be seen writhing around in the smoke. An unearthly wail was heard as Apollo felt Delphi being ripped from it's host.

He glared at Ari for hurting the mortal girl. She simply frowned apologetically and continued. Eventually a basketball sized ball of green smoke writhed above her palm, and Red collapsed, hanging onto Apollo lest she hit the floor.

Apollo had no idea how, but the mortal girl was still alive after that. No host had ever survived the transfer of Delphi, so this was outright impossible. But so was extracting Delphi from a host, and the being standing there had just done that in front of his eyes with minimal effort. Given what she was, he wasn't surprised she was capable of it, but still.

"Hmm... This is not the entire spirit," Ari discerned, glaring at Apollo. He just held up his hands, clearly having no idea. She nodded, then glared at the smoke, eyes glowing orange. The wail of Delphi was heard once again, then two mortals shimmered into existence between them. Apollo stared at them, mouth agape.

"You know these mortals, Apollo?"

"Yes. But how did you manage to pull him here?" he asked, pointing to the young elfish man with sandy blonde hair and a scar on his lip.

"What do you you mean?" Ari asked, confused.

"That is Luke Castellan," Apollo said.

Understanding dawned on Ari's face. And then more confusion. "That's a neat trick. Never pulled in a reincarnated person as their previous life before."

"You've done this before?" Apollo asked in awe.

"Retrieving pieces of a being's essence? Plenty of times," she replied. "This is Luke's mother, then," she declared.

"How did you know that?"

Ari tapped her suit. "Remote DNA test," she said. Seeing Apollo's bewildered expression, she huffed. "I don't rely on my power for everything. You should learn to do the same."

Apollo stuck out his tongue.

"Oh, _very_ mature," Ari muttered. Then she turned to look at Luke and his mother. "It appears that there's a small amount of the spirit in both of them," she said, rubbing the bridge if her nose. "No idea how that happened, but regardless."

She held up the smoke orb, and two tiny trails of smoke flowed out of the noses of Luke and his mother, merging into the main orb. The wail stopped, and the smoke turned a much deeper shade of green.

"It is ready," Ari declared, returning her hands to her sides.

"Ready for what?" Red asked.

Ari had completely forgotten she was there. "For the next stage of my plan, Red," she said, then something occurred to her. "Is your name really Red?"

The mortal girl shook her head. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"Ah, RED," Ari realized with a nod. "Anyways, to answer your question, Rachel, I have to ask you one. Do you like being mortal?"

Apollo figured out what she was offering, and was about to say something when Ari shook her head, warning him to be silent with a glare.

Rachel took a while to respond. "Yes and no, I think," she said.

Ari raised a brow. "Why is that?"

"Yes, because I get to be a part of the normal world," Rachel explained, "and no because even as the Oracle, I never truly felt like I belonged in this one."

The crimson haired girl nodded. "Seems fair. Exactly why I knew this was the right choice," she said solemnly. She had been going on guesswork, but _they_ didn't need to know that.

Apollo narrowed his eyes, but Ari meet his glare. "Do not interfere, Apollo," she warned, a dangerous edge to her tone.

The sun god gulped. "Got it," he agreed.

"Rachel, how would you like to become immortal?" Ari asked, shocking the redhead.

It was a few moments before she spoke. She shook her head. "I must decline, Lady Ari. My friends would miss me."

"Even if I told you that the Ancient Laws would not apply to you?"

Rachel pondered that for a moment, and Ari looked hopeful. Then she shook her head, declining it again. Ari sighed, pitying the girl for what was about to happen.

"Guess we're doing this the hard way then," she said, causing Apollo to run at her, breaking his agreement. Ari looked towards him, merely sighing, as her power rooted him to the spot he was at, body frozen mid stride. She _had_ warned him after all.

Rachel glared at her. "What did you do?" she yelled.

"Nothing much. Just stopped him from interfering is all." Ari then focused her gaze on the redheaded mortal. "I'm truly sorry about this, Rachel, but your loyalty to your friends can't stand against the fate of everyone on Terra."

Rachel's eyes widened, and she began to back up. Suddenly her body wouldn't obey her anymore and marched itself over to stand in front of Ari. They seemed to be the same height, she noticed, in the moments when her mind wasn't in a state of pure panic.

"Please don't do this," she pleaded with the girl in front of her. Rachel had tears in her eyes.

Ari noticed. She sighed, shaking her head, and simply said "It's for the best." Then she turned away from the terrified girl and called out.

"Fates of Terra, you are summoned," Ari bellowed, her voice resounding off the cave walls. There were three flashes, each revealing a elderly woman with gray, wrinkled skin and a single eye between them. The eye rested in the left socket of the middle Fate at the moment.

"You summoned us, Lady Ari?" Clotho asked, bowing to the girl. Rachel was beyond comprehension, since a Fate had just shown reverence to a crimson haired teenager.

"Yes, I did," she replied, nodding to the Fates, who had all bowed. They straightened, waiting for orders.

"You have made serious mistakes in your governance of this world," Ari began by _scolding_ them.

They looked at her incredulously. They didn't believe they'd done anything wrong, but were not suicidal. No way would they tell this girl that.

Ari knew this, however, so she growled. "You have grown cruel in your long existence. You put beings in life or death situations because it _entertains_ you. **THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!** " she yelled, an angry look on her face.

The Fates gulped, but knew better than to grovel. They merely fell to their knees, heads bent down, waiting for the end of their existence.

"However," Ari said, shooting them a pointed look. "In light of your long service to my mother, me, and this Planet, I'm leaving you alive, and immortal. I'm even going to restore your bodies to what they were... before."

The three Fates gasped, wondering what they did to deserve such mercy. "My Lady, why are you being so lenient with us?" Clotho asked.

Ari crossed her arms and glared at her. "I'm turning over a new leaf. Now shut up so I can concentrate."

Clotho did so, all the Fates simply waiting. Rachel gazed on in awe at Ari, wondering what kind of being would supersede the Fates themselves. Whatever she was, she was obviously mind bogglingly powerful.

"However, before I forget, there is a catch," Ari said, causing the Fates to jump a little.

"What is it?" Lachesis asked.

"You will forfeit your positions, your power, and your domains to me," Ari replied with a stern tone, " **or I will rip them out myself.** "

The Fates looked at each other, unanimously deciding against the latter option. Clotho popped out her singular eye and handed it to Ari, who simply smiled and nodded. Suddenly each Fate was surrounded by a maelstrom of orange light, too bright for Rachel to look at.

When the light died down and she could see again, what met her eyes left her mouth agape. Apollo let out a wolf whistle, despite his body still being frozen in place. Because where three crumbled, bony women without eyes previously kneeled, three extremely buxom, attractive young women had taken their place, both eyes intact. They got up, examining their bodies up and down.

"Thank you, My Lady," the woman who was supposedly Clotho said. Her voice sounded like music, laying playfully upon the ears. What a contrast to the sandpaper-on-a-chalkboard sound it had previously carried. The other two Fates had tears in their eyes, and rushed to hug the crimson haired girl.

"Gah! AIR! Atropos, Lachesis, AIR!" Ari gasped, desperately trying to breathe. The women let go of her, then began to kiss her hand.

"Ugh. Clotho, mind getting your sisters off me?" Ari requested of the only mellow Fate. Clotho simply rolled her eyes, dragging her sisters off the girl. Then she glanced at Apollo, and her cheeks instantly heated up, turning slightly golden as her ichor flooded her now beautiful face.

Holding her hand up the the side of her face, thumb and little finger extended as if to form a phone, Clotho mouthed 'call me' to the comparatively young sun god. Even though he was unable to reply, his eyes did the talking. Clotho giggled, then flashed herself and her sisters out.

* * *

Now Rachel had truly seen it all. _Giggling Fates,_ she thought, reminding herself that yes, that did just happen. Her shock went away as Ari approached her, replaced by the fear she'd held before the arrival of the Fates.

"Are you ready, Rachel?" Ari asked.

Rachel huffed, wondering why the girl was showing concern when she was being forced into this. "Do I have a choice?" she asked angrily.

"No," Ari said with a sad smile, before crushing the eye of the Fates in her palm. When she opened her hand, a pile of dust was left. She held her other hand above the pile, and a beam of orange light flew from her hand to the pile, igniting it into flames. The fire burned bright for a moment, then extinguished itself, the dust completely vaporized. The gray vapor seemed to condense into a ball the same size as the Spirit of Delphi, and Ari left it hanging in midair next to the spirit.

"I must prepare your essence, Rachel. Fair warning, this is going to sting a little."

Rachel didn't believe the 'little' part one bit.


	9. CH09 - Fate Be Changed

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 09**

 _Fate Be Changed_

Ari laid her hand on Rachel's forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating.

It didn't sting.

Stinging did not even come close to _approaching_ what it felt like.

Raw power flooded into her body, ripping apart every blood vessel, every cell. She felt her blood turn to liquid gold, fire racing through her veins as the mortal material underwent the change. Her heart sped up, just increasing the spread of fire throughout her body. Her skin dried up and cracked, revealing pure energy underneath, and vaporized into the air as her body converted to that of a goddess. Her senses told her that she was drowning in lava, but there was nothing she could do except scream.

Finally the influx of power subsided and the pain abruptly vanished. She suddenly felt better than she'd felt in her entire life, despite the fact that all her muscles were sore.

Moving her aching neck to look around Rachel found that her perception had changed; instead of the rowdy sun god, she saw a man composed of light.

Cracking her neck, she rubbed the muscles in her arms. " **Yeah, that didn't sting 'a little', you liar,** " she complained.

" **Sorry,** " came Ari's voice, but significantly different. It sounded a lot like what Rachel always assumed the universe would sound like if it could speak.

Turning to Ari, wondering why her voice had changed, Rachel's heart skipped a beat. For she'd been replaced by a woman entirely composed of silver metal with glowing orange lines flowing over her skin. Her body had better curves than Aphrodite, her chest beyond perfectly developed. It was honestly ridiculous. Her eyes were brilliant twin stars. They glowed bright orange, piercing Rachel with their gaze. Tendrils of silver smoke flowed off her body disappearing into the ether. But what tripped Rachel up the most was that she seemed to have no garments on, nor identifications of gender beyond her clearly female body shape and rounded chest.

" **What?** " the silver woman asked, crossing her arms and staring at Rachel quizzically.

" **Woah, Ari. You look... Damn** ," she replied once she could speak.

Realization dawned on Ari's face. " **You can see my true form?** "

" **Yeah. You look... really good,** " Rachel replied, choking on her words.

" **And you're still** _ **alive?**_ " Ari asked, incredulous.

Rachel looked herself over, realizing that the hold on her body that Ari had was gone. She pinched herself. " **I think so.** "

Ari waved over to Apollo, which was really distracting because of her slender silver arm. Apollo shuddered, then his face met the floor of the cave. He apparently was not expecting to be able to move again at that particular moment.

" **Apollo, has a clear sighted mortal ever been elevated to the level of a god and kept their clear sight?** " Ari asked him.

Apollo, being the god of truth, picked up his head and muttered "Nope," before putting his face back down with a groan and straining to get up.

Ari looked at Rachel in wonder. " **It seems you're one of a kind, Rachel. Especially since you can not only see my true form despite my hiding it, but you also can survive.** "

Rachel raised her own brow at this. " **I thought gods could look at other's true forms without vaporizing, though.** "

Ari nodded. " **Yes, they can. I'm not a god.** "

" **Oh** ," Rachel said, embarrassed. _Get ahold of yourself, Rachel. You're not this stupid._

Ari looked at her pensively. " **What** _ **is**_ **the matter with you?** "

" **Uh..**."

" **You look almost... smitten,** " Ari discerned.

Now Rachel was blushing, knowing her cheeks looked very golden due to her new blood. No, wait, ichor. _What the heck is going on?_ she asked herself in panic, _I like guys, not girls! And I'm usually much more intelligent than this!_

Then Ari whapped herself on the forehead. " **Of course!** " she cried, " **The Turning Bias**!"

Apollo's eyes lit up, realizing what Ari had mentioned. "That definitely explains it."

Rachel looked between them both, still embarrassed and confused, _definitely_ still blushing. " **What's a turning bias?** "

Ari chuckled and started to explain. " **When an immortal directly elevates a mortal, the mortal has a small piece of that immortal's essence in them. That piece is what the immortal placed in the mortal to… eh,** _ **kickstart**_ **the conversion to energy. For the first few days that piece wants to rejoin the main essence of the elevating immortal, and usually manifests itself as a sexual attraction to them, regardless of either beings gender or preference.** "

Rachel felt immensely relieved. " **Thank the gods,** " she exclaimed, placing a hand on her forehead, " **I thought becoming immortal suddenly changed who I liked.** "

Ari kindly smiled at her, a knowing look in her eyes. " **Give it a few centuries. Gender preference doesn't stick around for long, especially since divine beings can manifest as either. Or in some cases, both** ," she said, winking at Apollo.

He held up his hands. "I've never denied it," he defended himself, winking in return.

Then it hit Rachel. She was immortal. Unaging. Her friends and family would pass her by, getting older and older as she stayed forever young. She'd have to watch them die in front of her. Everyone she cared about would eventually be gone. She glared at Ari, malice present in her eyes, the look of wonder vanished from her face.

" **Why did you do this to me?** " the redhead growled. She brought her hands to her eyes, trying to cover up the fresh stream of tears now freely flowing down her face, and fell to the floor, leaning against the wall.

Ari looked like she felt a pang of guilt. " **Nothing I can do would compensate you for this, so I won't try. Just know that immortality, godhood even, is not as bad as it seems. Especially being a major goddess uncontrolled by Olympus's rules. And your... I want to say sacrifice, but you didn't die, so... aid is the term I'll use, will be crucial in preventing catastrophe during the time before I call the Olympians on their shit.** "

Rachel just glared at her.

* * *

Ari sighed. _She'll come around eventually,_ she assured herself, even as she caught Apollo's scathing look. He was right, she deserved their anger, but this was for the greater good. They'd just have to see that.

Ari walked over to the still hovering essence of the Fates and the trapped Spirit of Delphi. Rachel was a goddess now, and she was about to become extraordinarily powerful. Ari just hoped she'd agree to help without having to resort to other methods.

"Apollo, you want your snake back?" she asked.

The god of the sun raised his eyebrows, but was still glaring at her. "Yes."

She nodded, then thrust her hand into the green smoke. The wail of Delphi was heard, much louder this time, and she slowly withdrew her hand, clutching something. When her hand was clear of the smoke, it carried a green, very angry cobra that was thrashing about.

"Shush, young one," Ari said, scolding the snake, "or I'll have to make you."

The wail promptly stopped, and the snake stopped writhing around. It seemed to glare at her, but Ari paid it no mind. She walked straight to Apollo and put the snake in his hands, then returned to where she was. The previously green ball of smoke was now white, and resembled the essence beside it more than smoke.

Ari gathered the essences and approached Rachel, guilt eating at her. _Stop it,_ she chided herself, _you wouldn't even blink about something like this before._

 _I'm not the same as I was before,_ she argued.

 _It's for the greater good,_ her sense of purpose stated.

 _But what of_ her _good?_

 _One girl's_ discomfort _to save the lives of a planet of billions. There is no decision to be made._

 _She should have the choice,_ her conscience argued back.

Ari suddenly felt a headache. _This must be what the Olympians feel when their personalities are warring with each other,_ she thought.

She sighed, and kneeled on the floor next to the Rachel. She realized there was no way she could go through with this if she didn't know the new goddess was okay with it. "Look, Rachel, this is extremely important. You stepping in like this allows me to take the peaceful route with the Olympians."

Sniffling, she looked up, still with hate in her eyes. " **Who cares? Do it the other way. You don't have the right to do this to me,** " Rachel cried. Her voice was apparently still locked into 'deity' mode given the pulses of power that raced forth from her mouth with every word.

Ari set down the essences, placing her hand on Rachel's leg. "You don't want me to do it the other way. For the same reason you don't want to be immortal."

A glare was the only response, but she seemed to be listening.

"What exactly do you think would happen to the mortal world if I marched into the Olympus Throne Room right now and dethroned Zeus?"

Rachel's eyes widened in terror.

"Yeah, that's what Plan B would be," Ari said, glancing over to see if Apollo was having a negative reaction. So far he didn't seem to care.

" **Zeus would level cities** ," Rachel realized.

"Yes, and despite their misgivings for one another, Poseidon and Hades would fight against me. Entire countries flooded, armies of the dead across the world. They would hold the mortal world hostage to keep me from completing my job. Not to mention what other Olympians would do, much less the sisters of Zeus," Ari explained with an unusual patience, still eyeing Apollo warily. "Mind you, I'd get them under control very fast, but not before billions of mortals died."

" **This is the only peaceful way,** " Rachel gasped, eyes wide. She obviously, finally realized the pressure Ari was under.

"That's why I didn't give you a choice in this matter," Ari confirmed, looking at the floor. "But I now realize that you're correct. The events that occurred, the very reason I am _here_ , were caused by higher beings taking advantage of lower ones. I just did the same to you," she said solemnly, looking Rachel in the eyes.

"I don't have any more right to do this to you than the Olympians have to abuse demigods," she continued, shooting a pointed look at the Olympian currently there, then locked eyes with the new goddess again. "So," she sighed in defeat, "if you outright refuse to do this, I will absorb these essences and step you back down to a clear sighted mortal. But doing so makes my job much harder if not impossible, greatly increases the chance of a catastrophic war, and you will never feel the same again."

Rachel looked to Apollo. " **What does she mean, Apollo? About not feeling the same?** " she asked. Ari noticed she'd dropped the 'Lord' bit.

The sun god had a pained expression on his face when he replied. "Once a being becomes immortal, they're aware of much more information about the world than before," he said. "If they're made mortal again, their mind will remember that extra information but is cut off from it, so you feel a constant void that you can't ever fill," he finished solemnly, shuddering, "Not to mention the headaches."

"Speaking from experience, Apollo?" Ari asked him.

Apollo nodded. "Father likes mortalizing us for a while when we piss him off too greatly. It's not a fun experience."

Rachel tried to hide her smile. " **Mortalizing?** "

The sun god glared at her. "Yes, mortalizing."

Ari started to chuckle, winking at Rachel. "That term is certainly very… _mortalizing_ , Apollo," she managed to say through her laughs.

Apollo just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Oh, shove it, you two," he scowled.

Ari smirked and Rachel lost it. Her voice rang out in laughter, Apollo rolling his eyes. Both the older deities waited until she was finished, then Ari got them back on track.

"So, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, what is your answer?"

" **I need to ask you a couple of questions first** ," Rachel replied.

"Certainly."

" **If I do this, how would I appear normal? Surely if Camp's Oracle suddenly became a goddess, people would notice,** " she reasoned.

"Ah. Well, that's actually rather simple. I would place an... illusion of sorts on you that would make you appear mortal and cloak your presence from everyone," Ari explained.

" **If it's that easy, why don't you do it?** " Rachel asked. " **Surely having power over Fate would assist you?** "

"You have an excellent point, Rachel," Ari said, rubbing her chin in an attempt to figure out how to explain it. "Hmm. Well, Fate is linked to Terra, and linking myself like that would not be a good idea."

" **Why not?** "

"My... power level, I guess you could say, would crack this planet like an egg if linked fully, so I'd only be able to marginally utilize the influence of Fate. It would not be enough to help me, and would likely show my presence here like a beacon in the night."

Rachel had a giant grin on her face.

"Wha _aaaaaaat?_ " Ari hesitantly asked. She knew those kinds of grins.

" **Is your power level over nine thousand?** " the redhead asked. Without any hesitation.

Ari promptly brought her palm to her face, while Apollo burst out laughing. "You did not just make that joke," she groaned.

Rachel only smiled further, receiving a glare from the silver being.

"Mortals," Ari grumbled, dragging her hand down her face in mock agony. "For the record, it's 'over _eight_ thousand'." When the hand had dropped, she shook her head as if to clear out the stupidity. "Any other questions, Rachel?"

The girl sighed. " **I've been kind of guessing up to now, but what exactly are you going to do with those 'essences' as you called them?** " she asked as she pointed to the hovering orbs of energy.

"Right. Those are basically all the powers, titles, knowledge and etc that come with Fate and Prophecy," Ari said, pointing a thumb at each essence in turn. She ignored Apollo's grimace when she mentioned the latter.

Rachel nodded her head, beckoning Ari to continue.

"Basically, I will integrate these into your own essence, making you the new goddess of Prophecy and Fate, though your first domain would still be shared with Apollo," she explained, nodding to the mentioned god.

" **Wait,** _ **the**_ **goddess of Fate? Aren't there supposed to be three? And will I look like they did?** " Rachel asked, disgusted.

Ari chuckled. "Both the number of goddesses of Fate and their appearance was meant to make them humble and turn down their individual power. As you saw, that worked _splendidly_ ," she snarked. "So no, you'll stay the same as you are now, just with the power over everyone's lives and the course of Fate itself."

Rachel's eyes bugged out. " **But that would put me-** ," she began.

"Above the level of the Olympians, yes. Far above. You will essentially become a Primordial," Ari said, finishing her words for her.

" **Wow** ," Rachel said, voice barely audible. Then something occurred to her. " **Will I have to take up knitting? Because I really like painting, but I've never even touched a needle.** "

"Bah ha ha!" yelled Apollo, having just recovered from the previous laughing fit.

Ari glared at Apollo, but looked at Rachel with a motherly expression. "Only if you wish it. Personally, I've always found knitting to be incredibly boring," she said, humoring her.

" **But won't I have to create, measure and cut everything and it's parent's life strings?** " Rachel asked, confused.

Now it was Ari's turn to laugh. "Heavens no, Rachel! Our domains are supposed to run without our attention on them. In fact, those of us with absurdly massive or expansive domains rarely ever contemplate the entirety of them at once. No, domains will alert you when there is a problem, and that's when you are required to deal with them. Of course, you can manipulate your domains any time you wish, but that's your decision."

" **Then why the scissors and string and weaving?** "

Ari shrugged. "Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos liked the scare factor, I guess. Plus, you saw how much manual control they exerted over everyone's lives."

" **Good point,** " Rachel said.

"Are you prepared, Rachel?" Ari asked, the stars that were her eyes turning a brilliant shade of blue.

Rachel gulped. " **I guess so** ," she said, and raised her head, closing her eyes.

"Alright, here they come," Ari said, and then promptly shoved both essences into Rachel's chest.

* * *

Compared to what her body had felt like when she became a goddess, this was nothing. Her mind complained a little as new information flowed in from her domains, but all she suffered was a minor headache. She saw the past, the present, the future, all at the same time. It was a little like the feeling she used to have as the Oracle, that sense of seeing everything, everywhere and everywhen, just before she would black out and spit out another prophecy. But now it was controlled, and controlled by her. Sure, she felt Apollo's influence, but it seemed he didn't really do much in this domain besides listen. That was fine, because it meant she could bathe in time itself without him interfering. It seemed they were connected through the shared domain, for she felt his irritation at her assumptions. _He did manipulate the domain sometimes,_ the feeling said, less like a message and more like she was in the sun god's mind. Or whatever part of it was linked to Prophecy.

Suddenly, she could feel every being on Earth, capable of scanning their lives, their destinies, like an open book. It dragged her out of Prophecy hard, temporarily closing the connection with Apollo. This was her primary domain; Fate. She could rip pages out, change some around, or destroy the books entirely. Given that destroying was likely her perception of cutting the life thread, she refrained from doing it manually. Still, she could feel thousands of books ripping themselves apart at the seams every moment, and she knew with a sad heart those people were heading to the Underworld. If she wanted, she could reach out, suspend the destruction. She could even do it indefinitely; but her new knowledge included the importance of death, the recycling of energy the universe needed to keep going. It was fine to do for a small number of people, but on a mass scale was not wise. It simply unbalanced the order of things. Plus, those that died were often in great pain, wishing for the end, so she let them go.

" **Rachel, you're crying,** " Ari said softly, placing a hand in the girl's shoulder.

Rachel's attention was snapped back to the cave and her body instantly, leaving her a little stunned. She knew she looked shocked, and wiped her tears on her arm. " **I'm just getting used to the feeling of letting all those people go,** " she sniffled.

" **I know what it's like, trust me,** " the silver woman admitted, eyes downcast.

" **How?** " Rachel asked, an incredulous look on her face. " **How can you possibly know what it's like?** "

" **Because I feel it too, Rachel. Just on a much larger scale,** " Ari sighed, running her hand through her hair. " **You're the Fate of Terra, you deal with this planet. I feel the lives of planets themselves, stars, galaxies. All across the universe. Even now, stars are blowing up, taking untold amounts of planets with them. Galaxies colliding, black holes forming, catastrophic impacts wiping out life. The agonizing pain that ripples out from those events,** " she said, shuddering, " **It's almost too much to bear sometimes. So I try to ignore it.** "

" **What, you're the Fate of the Universe, then?** " Rachel scoffed.

Ari shook her head, silver hair flowing around her shoulders. " **No. Planets and higher beings don't have Fates. They answer to something much deeper; my mother. She** _ **is**_ **Energy, the energy of the universe. I'm her daughter, so I get a little of the pain of destructive events. She gets it all.** "

Rachel gasped, her hands at her mouth. " **That's horrible, Ari.** "

" **It is the way of things. But enough about me,** " Ari said, a hint of that pain in her voice, " **Let's talk about you. How does it feel to be the Primordial Goddess of Fate and Prophecy?** "

Rachel winced at her lengthy new title, but looked inside, at the lives of everyone she now had control of, the expanses of time she could look upon. " **It's definitely interesting, I'll give it that,** " she declared with a chuckle, " **though the link with Apollo is going to get tiring very quickly.** "

Apollo seemed offended. "Why would it get tiring, Red?" he asked.

She looked the sun god directly in the eyes. " **Because you're annoying.** "

Apollo huffed and stuck out his tongue.

Ari shook her head, just chuckling at their antics. They seemed like brother and sister, and given Apollo's real sisters, he deserved to have one that would treat him like a brother. She would have to have a _talk_ with Artemis about her attitude towards men and her twin some day.

" **Rachel, there is something else you must know about being the Goddess of Fate,** " Ari said.

" **What is it, Ari?** " she asked, curiosity evident in her eyes.

" **When a being's essence reaches about seventy percent energy, you will feel it happen. Your urge will be to instantly travel to them, declare them a god or goddess, and give them at least a part of, if not the entirety, of their first domain.** "

Rachel crossed her arms, but nodded. " **Where are you going with this?** "

Ari smiled, her plan might work after all. " **In order to prepare for fixing Terra, I'm going to have to utilize a much higher portion of my power than I have been. Since there's no place I could possibly hide that much energy output, I devised a plan. Turn all demigods the world over into minor gods. That amount of energy everywhere would easily cloak the amount I require.** "

Rachel looked dumbfounded. " **Because the Olympians wouldn't notice something** _ **that huge**_ **happening** _ **right under their noses,**_ **to their** _ **own children**_ **,** " she deadpanned.

" **Despite your sarcasm, you're right. Whoever the genius was that designed the system keeping track of energy output on this world made an error. It only alerts the gods if there's a spike of energy. It doesn't seem to care if the average energy level, everywhere, goes up. And heaven forbid there's anyone actually manually keeping track.** "

" **Wow.** _ **That's**_ **a design flaw,** " Rachel commented.

" **Indeed. I wish I knew who it was that created such a flawed system,** ", Ari mused.

Apollo snickered quietly, obviously hoping neither of them heard him.

No such luck.

" **Have something to add, Apollo?** " Ari asked, knowing he was keeping something from them.

"...I may know who designed that system," he admitted.

Rachel was curious too. " **Well, tell us sun boy!** "

Ari laughed at the nickname. Apollo glared.

"Designed by Athena, built by Hephaestus," the sun god announced, still glaring at Rachel. "And don't call me sun boy!"

" **That kind of screw up is amazing blackmail material,** " Rachel commented, ignoring Apollo's glare. Ari was laughing too hard to hear her.

" **Goddess of wisdom... making that big a fail... oh existence, my sides hurt,** " Ari managed to get out in between her laughing fits. When she could finally speak in complete sentences again, she wiped tears from her eyes and smiled at Apollo. " **Thank you so much for that, Apollo. I'll be sure to hold that over her for eternity.** "

"She's father's favorite, so I've got no qualms about it. Have fun," he replied, freely giving permission to torment his half sister.

" **Yes, well,** " Ari said, clearing her throat in an attempt to get back on topic, " **my plan would have worked with the previous Fates too, except for one minor detail.** "

Rachel gasped, realization hitting her like a truck. " **The domains.** "

The silver woman nodded. " **Pretty sure Zeus would notice, detector or not, if the Fates complained there were too many new godlings.** "

Rachel began cracking up. " **I can just imagine them now, flashing all over the place, handing out domains left and right, complaining the entire time about how many new gods there are,** " she said, falling over because she was laughing so hard. " **They'd say something like 'ZEUS! WHY ARE THERE ALL THESE NEW GODS EVERYWHERE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!' Oh gods that would be amazing.** "

" **Yeah. Which is why I needed someone else to be the goddess of Fate. Someone I could persuade,** " Ari struggled out, her face still displaying a wide grin. She was obviously finding it incredibly hard to resist laughing along with her.

" **Consider me persuaded,** " Rachel gasped, sitting back up, wiping tears from her eyes. Then something occurred to her. " **Wait, Ari,** _ **all**_ **demigods? Doesn't that include my friends?** "

Ari nodded.

" **My friends are going to become gods,** " Rachel realized, pushing a hand back through her hair. A look of surprise mixed with happiness was evident on her face.

" **Yep! Though only minor gods. Can't make them full-blown ones or they start intruding on their parent's domains,** " Ari confirmed.

Rachel's lips broke into a huge grin. " **Now I'm actually excited to be immortal. Let's do this thing!** "

" **Alright then. I'm going to begin now, and the urge might be overwhelming. So,** " she said, jerking a thumb at Apollo. " **If the pull is too strong, grab Apollo.** "

Rachel nodded, then rearranged her limbs into a relaxed position. She took a couple of deep breaths, closing her eyes, then looked directly at Ari's twin blue stars. " **I'm ready,** " she said.

Ari nodded, then looked inside to her primary domain, the one she shared with her mother. In a split second, her awareness spread over the entire planet. She felt pinpricks of energy, one part of a two part essence bonded to that of a mortal. There were hundreds of them worldwide but they were primarily clustered on Long Island and in San Francisco. She locked on to every signature, adding them to her mental list.

But there was something off; the planet seemed to flicker, signatures disappearing and reappearing at random. For a split second, a dense group of extremely powerful presences, just shy of godhood, appeared clustered on the southern tip of Norway, but then they were gone, and the planet stabilized. That was odd. Ari archived the incident for herself to review later.

Just to check, she extended her presence into high orbit, and located a demigod she had missed on the mortal International Space Station. She included him in the list too, hoping that his internal grumbling about 'being up here for a year' would subside once he figured out what had happened to him.

Ari opened her eyes, observing Rachel and Apollo staring at her. She smiled, drew in a deep breath, and began. Little by little, she poured power into their godly essences, converting their mortal energy as well. She took it much slower than with Rachel, for it would do no good if hundreds of demigods woke up in their sleep crying out for their parents in agony. At the rate she was going, it would take a good minute, but all of them would notice only a slight stomach ache, if they were even awake to begin with.

" **How are you doing, Rachel?** " Ari asked, sneaking a glance at the young goddess of Fate. Her face was a little golden, a large amount of strain present in her eyes, but she grit her teeth and just nodded back.

" **Apollo, comfort her,** " Ari ordered, then closed her eyes again. She heard him sit down next to Rachel, and he began to sing a hymn. She wasn't sure if it was doing any good, but she was almost done at this point, a measly ten percent left to convert to energy. She suddenly felt Rachel grab her leg, holding on with a steel grip. Ari opened her eyes to see Apollo's arm caught in her other hand, grimacing at the pain, and Rachel's face was in pure agony.

" **Hurry... up…,** " Rachel ordered, crushing Ari's leg tighter to prove her point.

" **Almost there, Rachel. The pull should stop once I'm done,** " Ari said, grasping Rachel's arm to comfort her. _78... 79..._ " **Eighty percent! Done!** " Ari cried out in joy. She felt the grip on her leg relax, and Rachel curled up into a ball.

Just to make sure, Ari sent a wave of energy over the list of demigods, applying a light essence cloak to them all. They should for all intents and purposes appear just as they had before, red blood and the presence of a demigod.

"Well done, Red," Apollo praised, kissing the girl on the cheek. Rachel abruptly unfurled and hugged the sun god, shocking the Hades out of him. It took a couple seconds, but he returned her hug, patting her on the back.

" **Please tell me we don't have to do that again,** " Rachel pleaded.

" **We don't have to do that again,** " Ari parroted happily, " **I shouldn't have any more need of Fate's assistance.** "

" **Thank the gods,** " came the reply, a groan uttering from her throat.

Ari and Apollo seemed amused about something.

" **What?** " Rachel asked.

" **Well, it's just you're a goddess now, so hearing you thank yourself is a little funny,** " Ari chuckled.

Rachel just rolled her eyes. " **I'm new at this. Cut me some slack.** "

" **Gladly,** " Ari agreed with a smile. " **We've got three more things to handle. Rachel's disguise, the mortals the proverbial cat dragged in, and secrecy.** "

Apollo choked on air. "What was that last one?" he asked.

" **I can't very well have you going around Mount Olympus telling everyone about me existing.** "

" **Of course not,** " Rachel said.

"But my oath..." Apollo trailed off.

" **The one binding you to the King of the Gods, right?** " Ari assumed.

Apollo nodded.

" **That can be solved easily** ," Ari said, straightening her back. " **I order you not to reveal my existence to anyone, anything, or any being in any way, shape or form, without my direct permission. The same goes for Rachel's new state or what happened to all demigods tonight.** "

Apollo felt a tug inside his essence, confirming the order he was given. "What the Hades?"

" **Simple, Apollo. My authority overrides dear old Thunderhead's, and as such if he ever commands you directly to spill the beans, you will literally be unable to comply,** " the silver being explained, " **In fact, there is nothing in existence that can override that order, so you're all set.** "

" **Aren't you going to do the same to me?** " Rachel asked.

" **Do you believe it necessary?** " Ari countered, glaring dangerously.

Rachel gulped audibly. " **Nope. Not at all. Secret's safe with me,** " she said with a shudder.

" **That is what I thought. Plus, you are so powerful now only much higher beings could override your will, so I'm not worried about that. Now come here,** " Ari told her, holding out a hand. Rachel obliged, scooting closer to the silver woman. " **Put your hand in mine.** "

Rachel did so, but a golden blush crept up her cheeks. Ari just smiled at the embarrassed girl, before placing a finger on the center of the back of the Goddess of Fate's hand. Travelling around and out she traced the shape of a swirl, which began glowing orange when Ari removed the finger. Rachel felt her presence disappear, contained entirely inside her own body without leaking to the outside world. Her power and domains were still intact and available to her. As she watched her hand, the swirl vanished.

"I don't feel very different," Rachel told Ari, rubbing the skin where the previously glowing orange swirl had been.

" **You're not supposed to. Just enough to know if it is active or not,** " Ari explained, letting go of the hand she had been holding. " **But allow me to demonstrate the external difference.** "

She summoned a flat piece of metal with a highly reflective surface, and held it up for Rachel to see. She looked at her own face for a moment before she noticed her extremely red cheeks, flush with embarrassment.

 _Wait, RED cheeks?_ Rachel thought, grabbing the mirror and bringing it closer to her cheeks. They were indeed red, not golden like they should have been.

"How did you do that?" Rachel asked, very confused. "Is my blood red again?"

Ari just chuckled at her predicament. " **No, it isn't. Remember, this is a disguise. While active, you will appear entirely mortal to the outside world. No godly presence, no golden blood, no glowing, even if you suffer an injury. Just plain old Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Even your voice is back to normal.** "

Rachel blinked, surprised. Now that she thought of it, her voice did have some kind of… powerful quality to it right after she was converted into a goddess. Only after the cloak was applied did her voice return to normal. She wouldn't have noticed either things occurring if Ari hadn't pointed it out. "Huh. You're right, my voice was kinda weird…"

" **That is what I call the 'deity' voice. What happens is your voice is layered with your own power as you speak. This gives the effect of your voice sounding a lot more powerful, deep, and rich, along with kind of… bursting your power out alongside each word,** " Ari helpfully explained.

Rachel raised an eyebrow and gazed at her critically. "A lot like your voice sounds to me right now?" She had felt those bursts, but it was only unconsciously until right that second.

Ari jerked back in surprise. " **You can hear my true voice** _ **and**_ **see my true form?** " Her eyes raked over Rachel's body several times with a discerning gaze. It was all Rachel could do to keep from getting hot and bothered from the object of her sudden crush examining her like that.

"Yes?" she hesitantly offered.

Ari scrunched up her nose and examined her once more. " **Hmm… I will have to investigate this further later. For now, we must continue discussing the Cloak.** "

Rachel nodded. "You're sure it will hide me?"

" **Pretty sure. It is, after all, hiding** _ **me**_ **,** " she revealed.

Rachel and Apollo raised both their eyebrows. "Okay…," Rachel stated, "so how do I deactivate it?"

" **Double tap the center of your hand, like this,** " Ari demonstrated.

Rachel copied her movements carefully, and relaxed when the orange swirl appeared for a second, then disappeared. Checking the mirror again, her cheeks were tinted gold, and she felt her presence in the air. " **Testing… One, two, three, testing…** " Her voice was weird again. She toggled the disguise one more time, watching amazed as her golden cheeks faded to red. "Another testing…" Normal voice. Satisfied, she handed the mirror to Ari.

" **Great, now that that's done, I've got a problem to deal with,** " Ari sighed, eyeing Luke's prone form. " **His dad will definitely notice this,** " she lamented, rubbing her hand through her hair to relieve stress.

"Don't worry about Hermes, Ari," Apollo said, putting a hand in her shoulder, "Just explain the situation to him like you did to me, minus the goading and freezing," the sun god chuckled.

Ari nodded her head. "Thanks for the advice. I should get back to Cabin Eleven," she said, rising from the floor and moving to stand by the mortals.

"Uh, can you take us back to my cave first?" Rachel requested.

" **Apollo should do it. As far as anyone watching was concerned, you and him were the only beings of note present in this cave tonight. It needs to remain that way.** "

Rachel slowly nodded in understanding, then grabbed Apollo's hand. She smiled at him, signaling she was ready. Just as he was about to flash them back, however, Ari spoke up.

" **Rachel, being a goddess gives you a lot of power over reality. If you want to learn about it, Cabin Eleven has a special training area. I'll teach you.** "

Rachel nodded energetically. "I'd like that."

" **It's a date then,** " Ari said, a teasing look on her face.

Rachel felt her face become hot again. "You're horrible," she shot back.

" **I know,** " came the reply, a giant smile on her face.

Rachel just rolled her eyes, and said "Let's go, Apollo," before flashing out on her own.

Ari raised her eyebrows, looking at where the girl had just been. Apollo smirked at her expression.

"Now you know why I chose her as my Oracle," he said with a laugh, before also flashing out.

" **She learns fast,** " Ari finished for him. Then her mind was drawn back to the mortals she had kept unconscious this whole time, and she scowled.

" **This is going to suck,** " she muttered, placing a hand on both of them. Her suit began to hum, and in a flash of orange light, they vanished, the air where they previously existed growing a few degrees colder.


	10. CH10 - Messengers

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 10**

 _Messengers_

Hermes, Messenger of the Gods, was sitting at his desk, in his office, situated at the center of his temple in the hot zone of his domain. The modern world had changed a lot about the Olympians. He was no exception. Because of where the heart of his domain was located in this new world, he had to learn a lot of patience, especially for a certain annoying accent.

To the mortal world his temple bore a different name: the 'SuperHub', the biggest shipping center in the United States. Located in Memphis, Tennessee, the giant complex was the headquarters for Hermes' company, Fedex. With so many packages travelling through here daily, so many letters received and sent, not only was his domain the strongest here but also stronger than it had ever been. Hermes was reliant on mortal civilization, but he didn't care. Unlike most of the other gods he actually _liked_ mortals. Well, most of them. There were still a few he'd deliver to his uncle in a heartbeat. A few of the gods fell under that distaste too. Every group had it's bad actors.

Sometimes he would walk into one of the sorting chambers to watch the automaton workers push and pull packages around, sending them off to their destinations. It felt strangely relaxing, seeing chaos constantly made into order. He chuckled at the memory of what mortals saw through the Mist. Apparently some kind of robotic arms showed up, instead of the automaton they really were.

But he was not relaxing at the moment. No fun was to be had for him, it seemed. His blasted uncle had sent one of his mortal organizations to audit Fedex. Yes, the God of Messengers was being forced to do taxes. Hate would be far too light a word for the opinion Hermes felt for these simple pieces of paper.

To be fair, he _had_ painted his uncle's palace in the Underworld bright pink with his half-brother Apollo. Persephone caught them, but when she learned what they were doing, she helped them escape. The duo had barely managed to get out of the Underworld before they heard an unearthly scream of rage, and it seemed Los Angeles had several magnitude six earthquakes for the week afterwards.

 _This is the most effective punishment I've ever seen, much less felt,_ Hermes grumbled. _Uncle should just replace the Fields of Punishment with a tax office._ He sighed as he filled in more information on the object of his hate. He had people in the organization who could do this, several who knew of his true nature, versus the CEO most mortals believed. But Hades was smart, and offered his high level employees a week's vacation. They all abandoned him, unawares of the audit that would come down upon his company merely two days later.

"What does 'Median Gross Income' even mean?" Hermes cried out in anguish, throwing up his hands in defeat. He was going to crack, he was sure. Dionysus may be able to rip minds apart, but this, _this_ was true insanity. The messenger god clapped his hands to his face, dragging them downwards in a mock attempt to claw out his own eyes. He had to get up, take a break, or there was no way he would be finishing this.

Just as he was about to stand, a prayer directed at him resounded. _Hermes, if you can hear me, we need to talk,_ a young female voice said. He was puzzled by this, since the location of the prayer seemed to come from his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, but also... not. The feeling was odd, to say the least, but he just shrugged and flashed away to his cabin. Anything to get out of doing taxes.

Or rather, he tried. Some kind of barrier was preventing him from manifesting directly inside the cabin, so he resolved for landing outside the entrance. When reality hit his senses again, he looked up at the cabin and gasped, for it was gone. In place of the wooden house that had previously been there, a large building stood, constructed completely out of various shades of silver metal. It had a wraparound porch, double doors with his symbol of power etched into them, and a giant caricature of his snakes, Martha and George, entwined around not a staff, but his cell phone. Hermes just stood outside, gaping at the grand structure.

 _You don't have to stand outside, Hermes. This is your cabin after all,_ the young woman's voice rang out in his head again, shaking the messenger god out of his shock. He wiped his face, then ascended the stairs that lead to the porch. Hesitantly he approached the double doors. He jumped a little when they slid into the walls on their own with a small hiss. But then he caught sight of the room beyond, and his jaw dropped.

The giant round chamber with his caduceus engraved in the floor, color coded to Martha and George. A ring of blue light around the edges where the floor met the wall, interrupted only by large hallways that led away. The field of lights taking up the ceiling. Gods, it was beautiful. Hermes actually shed a tear.

"Like it?" a voice spoke softly, coming from one of the hallways. Hermes looked down to see a young woman, maybe eighteen, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a kind smile. She had unnaturally dark red hair, cascading down her back like a molten waterfall. Her eyes were orange, with small flecks of grey in therm. No, silver, Hermes realized. She wore a long trench coat, and underneath some kind of skintight suit, showing off her extremely well developed body. Both seemed to be made out of a dark metal, with glowing orange lines on them.

Hermes nodded, still taking in his new cabin. "Who made this?"

The girl walked over to stand beside him. "Connor Stoll," she simply said.

Hermes looked at her in disbelief. "My son, a _Stoll_ , built all this?" he exclaimed, waving his hand about the cabin.

"With a little help from me," the girl responded, letting out a laugh.

 _Who is this girl?_ Hermes wondered, and resolved to find out.

"Who are you?" he asked her, receiving a raised brow.

"You don't already know?" she replied, smirking.

Thinking about it, the girl _did_ look familiar. But Hermes had a long existence, and far too many people to remember. So he shook his head.

She seemed hurt at that, and turned her head away from him in a huff.

"Sorry," he heard himself say, shocked. He had just apologized without even thinking. Gods just didn't do that, even if they ever apologized. Who _was_ this girl?

A moment later Hermes was glad he did, though, because she looked back at him with a smile. "It's fine, Hermes. You'll figure it out eventually."

Now he was dumbstruck. "If you know who I am, why do you not use my title?" he asked, puzzled.

Her smirk widened. "You'll have to figure out who I am to understand that."

He felt himself smile in return. _What the heck?_ he thought. It was like some part of him knew who she was, and was reacting like this on it's own.

She must have heard his dilemma somehow, for she answered the confusion. "Hermes, Hermes, I'm sure a part of you _does_ know who I am. After all, do the Olympians not have two sides?" she asked with mirth in her orange eyes. Her orange eyes with _silver_ flakes in them, he noted again. No, not silver, but the color of a certain metal...

Hermes gasped, and heard a slightly different voice than his own in his head. _You finally got it, me,_ Mercury said, mentally clapping him on the back. But the revelation just sent his head spinning, making it seem like nothing made sense anymore.

"You.. but… you're my… you're his... what? How? With who?" the God of Messengers stammered, shock on his face.

The girl looked extremely pleased. "I knew you were clever, Hermes. It's just that half of that cleverness is sequestered to the Romans."

 _I like her. She's cheeky,_ Mercury said.

 _Of course you like her, she's yours,_ Hermes shot back.

 _We are the same being, Hermes._

 _Says the voice in my head,_ he replied.

"You two done bickering?" the girl's voice cut in, instantly shutting them both up. Hermes looked at her, truly starting to wonder about her origin. What's more, she knew they had been arguing. Which was odd on it's own, since normally the Olympian's two aspects wouldn't even acknowledge each other, much less speak to the other in their shared mind.

"Yes," Hermes felt himself say, realizing it was Mercury exerting physical control over his body.

 _How are you doing that?_ Hermes asked him in a panic.

 _I have no idea,_ Mercury replied, and Hermes could feel his shocked state once he realized it.

 _The smiling, the sorry, was that you?_

 _Yes. How is this possible, Hermes!?_

 _It must be her. Whatever she is, she's capable of bringing both of us to the front at the same time._

 _There is no way she is mortal, then._

 _We need to ask her._

 _Yes, we do._

Somehow sensing that his aspects were in agreement with each other, the girl placed a hand on the messenger god's back, and began pushing him toward the hallway with a caduceus symbol above it. "Come on, both of you, I will explain once we reach a secure area."

Hermes raised his brow. "Secure area?" he asked.

She nodded, glancing around the chamber. "You have no idea who could be watching."

A chill went down the messenger god's spine. "Could you have said that any more creepily?" Hermes asked, annoyed.

"Yes," she said, an evil smile appearing on her face. Hermes' eyes grew wide, but he resolved not to say anything until her face resumed its normal, kind smile.

"So where are we going?" Mercury asked.

She looked at his eyes, searching for something. When she found it, she replied. "We're going to my room, Mercury."

Mercury tried to reply at the same time Hermes did, so all that came out of their mouth was a jumble of incomprehensible sounds. This caused the girl to laugh, throwing her head back. The sound of her laugh made Hermes feel giddy inside, and it wasn't just from Mercury's reaction. He realized he liked her a lot. Certainly not a romantic way, but in the way he should have, considering who she most likely was. Mercury's happiness just seemed to increase when he learned this.

They had been walking for about half a minute, passing by doors with symbols etched on them similar to the way the main doors of the cabin bore a caduceus. Hermes saw two doors opposite each other with illustrations of two boys dumping water out of a bucket on a rather large woman, and didn't have to read the nameplates to realize those cabins were Travis and Connor's. He also passed a room with an hourglass on it, and his heart sank when he saw the nameplate, for it read Luke Castellan. The campers must have added the room in honor of him, for his favorite son was no more.

Hermes heard a snicker from the girl when that thought crossed his mind, but he brushed it off. There was no way she'd heard his thoughts, so she must have been laughing at something else. The girl looked at him with pity in her eyes, making him doubt that assumption.

Finally, they reached a door at the end of the hallway. Unlike the other doors, this one was entirely composed of the material the girl's clothes were made of and the lines on it were slowly fading in and out. It was not on one of the sides of the hall, instead directly facing the entry chamber.

Now that Hermes thought of it, he looked back down the hallway to the chamber, and it occurred to him that there was no way in Hades this cabin could fit inside the structure he'd entered. "This doesn't make sense," he muttered, scratching his head.

The girl just shook hers, sighing, and placed her palm on a metal square to the right side of the door. A quiet chime sound was heard, and then the dark metal door slid into the floor. No, not slid, _flowed like water_. Hermes raised his eyebrows at this, but after everything he'd seen in his long life, it wasn't that unusual. The girl pushed the messenger god through the doorway, the door flowing back up behind them.

The room inside was quite homely as rooms go. It had a dull brown carpet, off white walls and a popcorn ceiling. A large bed was up against the left side of the room, a simple mattress on top of a large brick of the dark metal, sans the glowing lines Hermes had seen on the other examples of that metal. A large orb, also made of that metal, hovered in space directly across from the door, glowing orange symbols appearing and disappearing on it's surface. On the right side of the room a giant rectangle of shiny black material was inset into the wall. Other than those three objects, the door, and the girl's clothes, no trace of the metal could be found. There were a couple of windows to the outside world in the wall opposite the door, but what Hermes saw on the other side of them confused him greatly, given that they were currently displaying a vista of a snowcapped mountain range complete with a castle made of ice. It made even less sense when he moved sideways and the perspective changed.

As soon as the door closed, the girl's demeanor shifted slightly. She grew a little more serious, then walked over to a floating orb of metal that had orange symbols appearing and disappearing on its surface. She laid a hand on the ball. "Is the room secure, Command?" she asked, and Hermes heard a disembodied female voice reply.

ROOM SECURED, it said. Hermes swore it was coming from inside his own head.

The girl sighed in relief, letting her previously tense shoulders relax. Smiling, she turned around, waving her hand. Suddenly, a section of the rug wavered, then faded out of existence, revealing that under the rug was a solid floor of the dark metal. The metal flowed up like the door had, solidifying into the form of two large chairs, complete with tall backs and a table in between them. The rug faded back into existence. The girl beckoned the messenger god, directing him to sit in one of the chairs. He did so, and she took the other one. Hermes noticed that the chair, despite being made out of dark metal, felt exactly like a chair made out of actual leather would feel. He added that to the list of things that didn't make sense.

The crimson haired girl crossed her legs, resting her elbows on the arms of her chair. She placed her hands together and looked out over them like some kind of professor. "I'm sure both of you have questions. Here's the deal. Hermes gets to ask one, then Mercury, then Hermes, then Mercury and so on. If a question requires a follow up question, that is included in the turn."

Hermes nodded his head, and felt Mercury doing the same in his mind. "We agree," Mercury said.

The girl looked at Hermes with pity in her eyes, but quickly returned to the normal kindness. "Remember, I can tell who is speaking, so don't try and fool me. If you do, you lose your next turn to the other."

Neither Hermes or Mercury intended to do so, but Hermes nodded anyways.

"In that case, Hermes. Your turn," she said.

"Who are you?" he asked, not even hesitating. She raised an eyebrow at his urgency, but didn't seem to mind.

"I am Ari, 18, Unclaimed," she stated, smiling at Hermes' confused look.

"But if you're who I think you are, why haven't you been claimed?" Hermes asked, internally glaring at Mercury.

"Don't blame Mercury, Hermes. It is neither of your faults," Ari began, shaking her head. "Firstly, I can't _be_ claimed. Secondly, I've been cloaking my presence since before I arrived at Camp, so even if I could be claimed neither of you would have detected it," she finished.

"What do you mean, 'You can't be claimed'?" asked Mercury with a suspicious tone.

"Simply put, my mother is not mortal. Thus, not a mortal either, thus, not claimable," she explained.

Hermes felt Mercury diving into their memories, trying to locate her mother. While he was doing that, he decided to simply ask her. "Who is your mother, Ari?"

Ari chuckled, shaking her head. "She looks almost exactly like me, Hermes. Maybe that will help in Mercury's search."

 _How the Hades does she know what's going on in our head, Mercury?_ Hermes asked his other aspect, who currently had his head buried in a section of their memories.

He heard the Roman shriek, jumping out of the memory cluster like he'd been burned. He simply looked at the mental representation of Hermes. _She's_ HER _daughter,_ he said.

Ari smiled, a knowing look in her eyes. Hermes looked at her in a new light. He'd never been told that the being he'd had relations with just ten millennia ago had a daughter.

"Yep, she is my mother. And you already know who the father is," she said, a teasing smile on her lips.

Hermes couldn't trust the facts in front of him it until he heard it from her mouth. "Me," he breathed out, not quite believing it.

Ari's face looked like she was about to cry with joy. "Hey, Dad. Guess I'm in the right cabin after all."

* * *

A huge smile broke out on Hermes' face,l. He rushed out of his chair, wrapping his daughter in a tight embrace. His protective instincts didn't just activate. They ramped up into overdrive.

"Oof!" Ari cried out, being smothered in the hug of her father. "I have to breathe, Dad!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry," Hermes said, returning to his chair. "How are you? Where have you been? Why didn't she tell me?" he asked in rapid fire.

Ari laughed, motioning for him to be quiet. "I'm fine Dad, thanks for asking. As for where I've been, across the universe. Protecting worlds, dealing with issues, saving lives."

Hermes had an extremely proud look on his face. "That's my girl."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't know why mother didn't tell you. It's possible she forgot, but I doubt it. She didn't tell me," Ari elaborated.

That caused confusion for the messenger god, and it showed. "Wait, if she didn't tell you, how did you know I was your father?" Mercury asked.

Ari shrugged. "I didn't know for sure until I met you in person, but I guessed it was the case. If you saw my true form, you'd understand."

"Show me," Hermes asked.

Ari shook her head. "I can't do it here. If you take my hand, though," she said, "we can go somewhere I can be myself."

Hermes smiled at his daughter and grabbed her hand. Her face broke out into a huge smile, and she said "Hang on!" before she began to glow silver, a bright light engulfing them.


	11. CH11 - Sea of Mind

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 11**

 _Sea of Mind_

Annabeth awoke with a headache, her long blonde hair nearly completely covering her vision. She inhaled deeply and blew upwards, pushing enough out of her face to see the person she was laying against. Percy Jackson, two time Hero of Olympus, her significant other, and demigod son of Poseidon. The father of their future children. The daughter of Athena sighed happily, snuggling into Percy's well muscled chest.

 _Annabeth,_ she heard, and glanced up to see if Percy was awake. What puzzled her was that he was not; and yet, she had just heard his voice. Maybe he'd said her name in his sleep. He tended to do that interchangeably with the times he drooled.

"Percy, are you up?" she decided to ask, gently shaking his body. The Seaweed Brain just muttered in response, and his head turned sideways. _Great,_ she thought, _he's completely out._

 _Annabeth,_ she heard again, but this time her eyes widened. She had been looking at his face rather intently, and Percy's lips hadn't moved a centimeter. Mmm... his lips. _No, stop it,_ she scolded herself, _something's going on. Figure it out, adore Percy later._

"Percy?" Annabeth asked again, shaking him harder this time. His eyes fluttered open a little for a few seconds, then closed as he went back to sleep.

 _Ugh, moron,_ she grumbled internally. It looked like she was going to have to wake him up another way.

Looking around Cabin Three, she spotted the fountain that Poseidon had given Percy, happily bubbling away and creating a fine mist. Percy called it his 'Irisphone'. Even though he couldn't get wet unless he willed it, Annabeth knew he still felt the cold of water that touched him. She was going to drench him in it for making it so difficult to wake him up this morning.

There was a slight problem though; Annabeth was between Percy and the cabin wall. She would have to clamber over him to get up or slide out of the bunk laterally. Sighing, she began to inch herself off the bunk, but stopped when Percy tightened his grip on her. Apparently she wasn't moving. Grand.

Not for the first time, Annabeth wished she had hydrokinesis like Percy. Then she could just will some water from the fountain onto him to wake him up. She glared at the fountain, daring it to keep happily bubbling away while she was stuck.

She did not expect the water to actually _respond_.

Annabeth felt a tug in her gut, then the fountain's pool exploded into the air, the water racing towards the couple. She just barely had enough time to close her eyes when they were drenched head to toe. But hey, it worked.

Percy's eyes shot open and he was instantly on his feet, Riptide in hand in sword form, rapidly turning his head to find the threat. Annabeth was sitting up on the bunk in stunned silence, the puzzle pieces already falling into place.

Percy had told her that whenever he used his power over water, he felt a tug in his gut. She had just felt one right before the fountain exploded. Then she noticed something else; the bunk was soaked, but she was completely dry. Had Percy's abilities transferred to her? No, she confirmed, seeing that he was also completely dry. _So what, we both have hydrokinesis now?_ she asked herself. _How is this possible?_

 _Annabeth?_ She heard in her head once again. This time Percy's voice sounded questioning. He turned the sword back into a pen and pocketed it, turning to look at her. He had confusion on his face, but he was smiling despite his cheeks glowing red.

 _Annabeth is so hot,_ his voice said in her head. She blushed at the compliment, but then realization dawned. His lips hadn't moved. Again. She decided on one last test to see if her hypothesis was correct. If it was, their day was going to get a whole lot more complicated.

 _Percy?_ Annabeth thought, trying to direct the thought at him. She had no idea if that would work or even how to do it, but she tried nonetheless. When Percy spluttered and tripped backwards into the fountain, she knew she was right.

"Annabeth? Was that you?" Percy asked, with his mouth this time, staring at her in shock.

 _Yes?_ she replied hesitantly.

"I heard that," Percy gasped.

Annabeth closed her eyes and focused. _This? You hear this?_

"How are you doing that?" Percy cried, eyes widening until they looked like they would pop out of his head.

"I think..," Annabeth began. Before she could continue, she noticed Percy's sea-green eyes. Wait, no. His mismatched, _storm grey_ and sea green eyes. His right eye seemed to have become the color of her own.

"Percy, your eyes!" she said, getting up and walking to him. She grabbed his face and stared into his eyes, the hypothesis seeming both more impossible and more likely every second.

"Annabeth, I think whatever happened to my eyes happened to yours as well," Percy breathed, barely audible.

Her eyes? What was wrong with them? Panicking, she raced over to the now refilled fountain and stared at her reflection. _Crap,_ she thought, _I was right._ Her left eye was now sea green.

"Right about what?" the son of Poseidon asked.

"Percy, don't freak out, okay?" she said calmly, trying to reassure herself just as much as her boyfriend.

"Annabeth, I'm _way_ past freaking out. We were woken up by a wave of water and you're talking in my head!" Percy replied, voice shaky.

Annabeth didn't respond, she just focused on the water in front of her. After a second or so, the now familiar tug in her gut appeared, and the water in the pool flowed out into the air, flying around her like ribbons. She turned around and saw the broken look on Percy's face. This proved it; the hypothesis was right.

Completely right.

" _Annabeth,_ " Percy managed to get out, staring at the water flying around her.

"I think we somehow have each other's abilities," Annabeth said, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"You mean... this is you?" he asked.

She nodded. "I think the wakeup call was me, too."

"But... how?" Percy asked, bewildered.

Annabeth racked her brain, trying to figure out what caused it. _The new girl,_ she realized. Just as she was about to say it, Percy beat her to it.

"The new girl," he said, then got a shock on his face. "Wait, what? How did I know that?"

"My power from Athena," Annabeth gasped, the true weight of this situation tumbling down on her. "Percy, Athena's domain is intelligence."

Percy's mouth fell open. "So... I'm as smart as you now?" he asked tentatively.

"The same way I can apparently control water, yup," she said. Realizing that she had just said _yup,_ she covered her mouth with her hands.

Percy smirked. "Looks like you didn't just get control over water from me."

"Percy, I've never used 'yup' in my life," she said, a look of fear on her face.

Seeing her distress, Percy pulled her into a hug, ignoring the water ribbons plowing into him. "Annabeth, it's okay. Even if you got some of me in whatever happened to cause this, it's fine, right? Because you love me, so it can't be that bad," he reasoned.

Annabeth mock punched him in the arm. "For once you're right, Seaweed Brain," she said with a smirk, her fear fading a little.

"Mark the day!" Percy cried out to the walls, "For on this day my girlfriend admitted I was right!"

"Don't get used to it," she teased, then she realized something. They were both completely naked.

"Uh, before we go see Ari, or whoever she is, we should put some clothes on," she muttered, blushing profusely.

Percy looked down at their bodies, then his face became red as well. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea," he admitted.

 _Seaweed Brain,_ she thought, shaking her head.

"Hey! I heard that!" he responded, a look of mock hurt on his face, which rapidly turned into confusion. "Annabeth, how come I can hear your thoughts?"

"I can think of two reasons, but it's not just you hearing mine. I can hear yours too," Annabeth said.

 _You can hear this?_ Percy's voice rang out in her head.

 _Yeah,_ she replied, causing him to look shocked again.

"Reading minds... could you do that before?" Percy asked, looking a little worried.

"Relax, Seaweed Brain, no I couldn't. Like I said, two reasons might exist as to why we can do this. One, which is more likely, is that whatever process did this to us bonded us together, so we can only read each other's thoughts," Annabeth explained.

"And number two?" Percy said, raising an eyebrow.

She drew in a deep breath before responding. "Mind reading is a power my mom has, but none of her children do. It's known that we are not very powerful demigods. We rely more on our brains than any divine abilities," she began.

"So?"

"So, what if... this… this _transfer_ , or _whatever_ it is that gave me your power over water also made me much more powerful? So much more that I gained a new power from Athena? If so, it probably would have transferred to you like your power to me. What if we can _both_ read _anyone's_ mind because we're now the most powerful demigods alive?"

Percy gulped. "We need to talk to Ari."

"Yes we do. Get dressed," Annabeth commanded, turning her attention to the water ribbons _still_ flying around them and directing them back into the pool.

"Yes, ma'am!" Percy laughed, grabbing an orange T-shirt and some jeans and heading into the bathroom.

Annabeth chuckled at her boyfriend's antics and began to get dressed herself.

* * *

The Hero of Olympus walked out of his cabin first, hands on his hips and hair blowing in the wind. It must have been Aeolus having a laugh at Percy's expense today. It seemed he decided to do it by making the Son of Poseidon appear to everyone like the superhero stereotype.

This was not new, of course. Every day when he walked out of his cabin the environment would find some way to make fun of him. Usually a god of some sort was behind it. Zeus had even picked on him a couple of times, not that he would admit it to anyone but his children. Most of the campers were used to it by now.

They were also very used to what happened immediately afterwards. Percy? Not so much, even after years of it.

 _Boss!_ Blackjack cried out via telepathy, tackling his friend to the ground.

"Oof!" Percy grunted, pinned to the floor under a ton of winged horse. "Good morning, Blackjack."

 _Hi Boss!_ the pegasus formally greeted him, as much as this particular equine could do _anything_ formally. _Got any donuts for me?_

Percy glanced at him with an exasperated expression. "I just woke up, Blackjack. How could I possibly have donuts?"

He shrugged. _Don't know. Got any?_

Percy sighed. "No donuts yet, I'm afraid. I'll get you some later, but only if you get off me!" he promised, trying in vain to push a much heavier being off of his body.

The door to his cabin opened before Blackjack could get up revealing a well dressed Annabeth. She leaned against the doorframe with a teasing smile on her face, not moving to help her trapped significant other in the least. "Hey Blackjack. Here for your morning routine of pinning my boyfriend?" she asked humorously.

The pegasus squared his shoulders proudly, closing his eyes with a satisfied smirk. _Yep. I want donuts!_

Annabeth's face went white as a sheet. Unlike every other morning, she no longer needed Percy to translate the pegasus's thoughts into words. "Blackjack?" she hesitantly asked, barely breathing.

He caught her panicked undertone, being a highly intelligent animal, and looked at her supportively. _Yeah, She-Boss?_

She gulped. " _I can hear you,_ " she whispered.

Percy blinked. Blackjack blinked. They looked at each other and blinked again. Finally they turned to her and let out a united " _What?!_ "

" _I. Can. Hear. Blackjack!_ " she hissed.

"So. Not just the water, then," Percy summed up.

"Seems not."

 _What's this about water?_

Annabeth suddenly looked seriously worried. _Who are you loyal to, Blackjack?_

The winged horse's eyebrows rose higher. _You can thought-speak?!_

Annabeth nodded.

 _Ookaaayyyyy,_ Blackjack warily said. _Um, Percy is my boss,_ he said by way of answer.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him. _So if Poseidon asked you about us, you could lie to him?_

Blackjack narrowed his own eyes, but nodded. _Yeah. Old Boss gave me to Percy. He's my Uber-boss now. If he says not to answer something, I'd have to obey,_ he explained.

Percy's own eyebrows rose. _Wait, my dad put you under my service?_

Blackjack nodded. _Don't let it go to your head though, Boss!_ he accused.

Percy chuckled lightly. "Okay Blackjack. I trust you. But you can't tell anyone what we're about to tell you, got it?"

 _Got it, Boss_ , he agreed. _What's so secret?_

Annabeth nervously looked away from him while she answered. _I can control water now, Blackjack._

The pegasus' eyebrows shot into orbit. _Since when do_ you _have the sea in your blood?_

 _Since this morning, apparently,_ she replied.

Blackjack glanced between them several times before grinning. _Did you two do the horizontal dance at midnight last night?_

Percy and Annabeth blushed extremely hard. "Blackjack!" Percy scolded.

The winged horse whinnied heartily. _So you did. Something really strange happened about that time. Some kind of wave of power washed over the world. I only barely felt it, and that's because I was paying attention because I was on border patrol. It's possible that is what put the sea in your blood, She-Boss,_ heexplained.

Annabeth looked scarily curious. _Did you happen to sense where it came from, Blackjack?_

The Pegasus raised a hoof in the direction of the shiny new Hermes cabin.

Percy and Annabeth looked to each other. "We were right," they said.

 _Right about what, Bosses?_

Annabeth sighed. "We have to go see someone, Blackjack. Could you please get off Percy?"

Blackjack narrowed his eyes at her, but did get up. _You'll fill me in later, right?_

Percy opened his mouth to assure him, but Annabeth glared to cut him off. When she saw he wouldn't speak, she replied instead. _If we can, Blackjack. If we can._

The black Pegasus shrugged and lifted off. _Aight. Later, Bosses!_ he sent to them.

"Hermes Cabin?" Percy asked.

"Hermes Cabin," Annabeth confirmed.

* * *

The doors to the Hermes cabin slid apart with a pneumatic hiss, revealing the interior. Percy had to quickly steer his girlfriend down a tunnel, or she would have been in the main chamber all day admiring the architecture. He hoped it was the right tunnel. When she half-heartedly resisted, he shook his head at her humorous reactions to buildings and their construction.

 _No awards for guessing what her domain would be if she ever becomes a goddess,_ he thought.

That idea sent a chill down his spine. As they walked down the absurdly long hall with doors every few feet, he whispered his idea to her.

"Annabeth," he said to get her attention.

"Hmm?" she replied, still absent-minded.

He sighed. "Do you think the Olympians turned us into gods in our sleep?" he asked.

Annabeth almost tripped at that. He caught her with an extended arm. After her grateful look, she turned worried again. "You think they'd do that even when we refused?"

"Wouldn't put it past them," Percy grumbled.

"No, Percy," she tried to assure him. "Our parents wouldn't let them do that."

Percy shrugged. "They might've been out voted," he pointed out.

Annabeth paused her walk to think about it, face scrunched up in concentration. Finally, she spoke. "Wouldn't they have gloated about it by now though? Plus, what about the new girl? And the wave of power Blackjack told us about? I also don't feel very goddess like, just like I normally do," she brought up. "No, I think something else is going on here."

Percy shrugged. "We shall see," he stated, clearly not believing her. "Which door do you think is hers?"

Annabeth tapped his shoulder and pointed to the end of the hall. "Probably the one made out of dark metal with orange lines in it," she answered sarcastically.

"Oh," Percy commented sheepishly, "Yeah. That's probably the one."

Annabeth swatted his head. "Seaweed Brain," she muttered, continuing down the hall towards the door.

"Owl Girl," he retorted, sticking out his tongue.

"Come on Percy, keep up!" she called back to him.

* * *

"So," Percy started, "where's the handle?"

Annabeth swatted him on the head again. "None of these doors have handles, Seaweed Brain. They must be motion activated. You know, like in Star Trek?" she explained, staring at him expectantly.

"What?" he asked.

"Star Trek?" she asked again.

Percy knew, even before he said anything, how screwed he was. "I uh… I don't know what that is," he hesitantly replied.

Annabeth's eye twitched. "We have a marathon of Trekking to do after this, Seaweed Brain," she dangerously seethed.

Percy gulped. "Got it."

A third voice spoke from behind Annabeth. It was clearly female, with a light and airy quality to the tone. The voice was also soft and caring, despite neither demigod knowing how they picked up on so many qualities in a voice at once. "As amusing as watching you two argue may be, do you want something?" the voice asked.

Annabeth spun around and gasped. In front of her at eye level an orange rectangle hovered in space, displaying a black void and the face of a woman. This woman was not human, though; she was clearly made of the same metal the new girl used everywhere, even the door.

Percy found his voice first. "H… hello?" he said.

The woman smiled. "Hi. You want something?"

He and Annabeth shared a look. "We need to talk to the new girl," he replied.

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Ari is away on business. May I take a message?"

Ari. _Now we have a name,_ Percy thought.

Annabeth snarled at that. "No. You call her back right now. She has some explaining to do!" she demanded.

The woman's eyes glowed momentarily, a scowl on her face. "Do not presume to command me, Daughter of Wisdom," she declared.

Annabeth bristled and would have continued the argument if Percy had not clamped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, Annabeth has a temper. We really do need to speak to her, though. It's about her…," he trailed off, coming closer to the rectangle and whispering. "It's about her being a goddess."

The woman's eyes went wide and she gasped. "How do you know this?"

Percy glanced around warily before replying. "She revealed it to us last night at Capture the Flag. Told us not to say anything, that we would talk later. Events myself and Annabeth have gone through this morning require that talk to be _right now_ ," he explained.

The woman gulped and turned her head. "I'll see what I can do. Be right back."

With that the rectangle blinked out of existence and Percy took his hand off Annabeth's mouth.

"Thanks for stopping me, Percy," she said.

He shrugged. "No sense in ticking off a goddess if they're not at odds with you, right?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend's suddenly solid logic. "Says the guy who sent Medusa's head to Olympus as a statement," she retorted.

He rolled his eyes. "Nobody is ever going to let me live that down, are they?" he asked to the ceiling.

* * *

 **A/N: Double post today. Hope the entire 2~ people who read this are happy!**


	12. CH12 - Terra

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 12**

 _Terra_

When the light faded, the two of them were standing in empty space, black all around them.

Hermes looked up at Ari and was visibly startled. Her true form was on display, silver shapely body and flowing silver hair, the wisps of silver smoke streaming off her into nothingness. Her eyes were replaced by stars, shining bright and strong.

"Woah," both aspects said.

Ari shuffled her feet, looking down. "I hope that answers your question."

"But you're _Her_ daughter; why is your true form like this?" Hermes asked, bewildered.

Ari smiled, gesturing to her metallic silver body. "Because of your influence, I think. Most of my true form's appearance seems to come from you. A whole lot of my personality too. But my eyes bely my nature," she said.

Hermes's eyebrows raised, and Mercury asked the question on both their minds. "So, the silver material… is it what we think it is?"

Ari nodded, her smile getting bigger. "Yes, it's mercury. I'm basically completely composed of it externally, and it's my shell's blood instead of ichor or plasma."

Hermes looked puzzled. "Your 'shell'?" he asked.

"All energy beings have them. They're what you look like when you're not in true form," Ari explained, and she was instantly replaced by the crimson haired girl she looked like on the surface. She gestured to her body, hands flying up and down.

"Energy beings?" Hermes asked, looking even more confused.

Ari stroked the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "That's what we are. Gods, Primordials, Planets. Anything higher than a mortal is actually a conscious collection of energy. I'm surprised none of the Olympians were taught that."

"Zeus doesn't teach us much," Hermes grumbled.

"I get that, but seriously, _nobody_ told you?" she asked in disbelief.

"No."

Ari threw up her hands. "Guess I'll have to become a professor."

"Where are we?" Hermes asked, changing the subject. He was trying to pick out any detail from the black expanse.

"Look down," Ari replied simply, gesturing downward with her hand.

When the messenger god did so, he gasped in awe. Below them, a huge blue sphere stretched out, painted with green, brown, and white. Swathes of light could be seen hugging the edges of the green and brown sections, sometimes extending out into the blue. The white floated across the surface, casting dark gray shadows.

"Is that Earth?" Hermes asked, barely above a whisper.

"That is Terra, yes. We are currently in high orbit above her surface."

Mercury growled at her use of the planet's name, but Hermes was still in awe.

"What's wrong, Dad?" Ari looked concerned.

"Please don't mention that wretch's name," Mercury said.

Ari was surprised. "Why not? Better yet, why call her a wretch?"

"I don't know if you were around for it, but Olympus was recently in a war against the giants. They raised her from her slumber, on her orders. She wanted to wipe out the mortal world along with Olympus. We barely beat them, and Camp Half-Blood was nearly destroyed," Hermes said, finally paying attention. "The only reason we won is the Seven, who managed to disperse her so she couldn't come back."

Ari wracked her brain. _Why would Terra do that?_ Also, Mercury had said she had previously been asleep, AND that she was dispersed right now. Something didn't add up here. "Yeah, I know the story. But the one who tried to rise is Gaea. Why are you angry at Terra?"

Mercury glared at her. "Like Hermes and I, Terra and Gaea are two sides of the same coin."

Ari just blinked. Then realization hit her in the face. "You stupid Roman," she chuckled, shaking her head and bringing her palm to her face, "Terra is _not_ Gaea."

An offended look appeared on Hermes's face, no doubt from Mercury. "Romans are not stupid."

"In this instance you are," Ari chuckled. "No wonder, considering even the steam engine wasn't invented when the Roman Empire stood, and _apparently_ nobody has bothered to update you based on mortal science. Forget the Romans having a grander sense of the universe," she laughed, then extended her hand to the planet. " **Terra, you are summoned,** " she intoned with a voice layered with power. A burst of orange energy flared in the atmosphere of the planet and shot outward, the ring of almost _fire_ fading as it expanded across the surface of the world.

A female voice suddenly sounded in their heads. _**Lady Ari,**_ the voice said, _**Why have you called upon me?**_ The voice came along with a flurry of emotions, washing over them in waves. Above all was kindness, the sort you'd receive from a mother.

Hermes mouthed 'Lady Ari?', looking at his daughter with a puzzled expression. She simply held up her hand, motioning him to be quiet, before she responded. " **Terra, my father is under the impression that you and Gaea are the same being, like he and Hermes are. I wish to correct this assumption.** "

The emotional tidal wave changed to being overcome with happiness. _**Ari, you finally found him?**_

" **Yes, I did, and he's being a butt. Mind coming up here for a bit?** " Ari said.

Hermes looked offended at that, but his scowl disappeared when the voice sounded again, the wave of emotions filled with sympathy. _**Can he handle my presence?**_ she asked.

Ari looked at Hermes, her eyes scanning over him, looking for something. " **Yes,** " she finally answered, " **I'm sure he can.** "

 _ **In that case, allow me a moment. I haven't manifested my shell in centuries!**_ the voice replied, seeming to focus on something.

A few meters away, a blue light began to collect from nothing. It formed a vortex, swirling with green and brown light, before stretching downward towards the planet. Suddenly a slender foot stepped out, and a wave of invisible energy washed over Hermes. He grunted, the energy causing him to have a headache, but nodded to his daughter when she looked at him questioningly. She shrugged and looked back at the foot, which now was attached to a leg. The foot stepped out onto the invisible platform they stood on, and dragged the leg along with it. Then a hand with attached arm extended from the vortex, twirling around as if sensing the environment. The two beings already present waited with baited breath until the entirety of Terra had emerged from the vortex.

Ari saw her father gasp in shock, for in front of them was an exceedingly beautiful woman clothed in a robe seemingly composed entirely of water, with islands and continents floating around it. It hugged her impossible curves like a wetsuit, displaying the large bust and wide hips she possessed. Clouds floated around her head, forming a halo that was more or less complete. She had long navy blue hair that hung past her thighs, swirling around in space as if only halfway affected by gravity. Everything about her seemed made to exude beauty and strength; slender but well muscled legs and arms, and a face men would knock each other over in the streets to look at. What was most striking about her were the eyes, though. Her irises glowed, literally, casting small overlays of sea green wherever she looked. Her eyes currently were resting on Ari, a kind smile present on her face.

* * *

"Lady Ari," Terra greeted, curtsying to her. Hermes's jaw dropped. Ari just scoffed and walked over to her to pull her up, dusting off the woman's shoulders.

"You know there's no need to call me that, Terra," she said, placing a hand at the small of the Planet's back. "This is my father, Hermes. Or Mercury. They've got a bit of a split personality going on," she said, chuckling at her own joke.

Both messenger god's aspects were completely frozen in shock, staring at Terra.

"Not much of a talker, is he?" Terra asked, mouth lopsided as she looked at him.

"That's not fair. You intentionally made this shell look like that," Ari said with a scolding tone.

"Well what's with your shell?" Terra asked, lightly punching Ari in the arm. "It looks like a demigod!"

"That's the point, Terra," she replied, shoving her shoulder.

Hermes realized his daughter and the _planet_ were good friends. Which was the weirdest thing to ever happen to him. "You two are _friends_?"

Terra and Ari put their arms around each other's shoulders. "Yep!" came the reply, in perfect synchronization, smiling at the messenger god, whose bewildered look just got deeper.

"Though technically, we aren't _just_ friends," Terra said, a smirk appearing on her face.

"What?" Hermes asked, looking to his daughter for an explanation.

"Think about it, Dad. Who's your father?" Ari asked.

"Zeus," Hermes replied, humoring her.

"And his father?" she continued.

"Kronos," he growled.

"And his?" Ari pressed.

"Ouranos," Hermes said, surprised to see Terra scowl at the name.

"Alright, you're almost there. Who's his father?"

"Chaos, right?" the messenger god asked, hoping the line of questions was finally over. He looked at Terra to find her shaking her head, eyes closed.

"No, Dad. You're a couple steps away from Chaos at this point," Ari corrected him.

"Tell me then. Who is Ouranos' father?" Hermes said, waving his hands exasperatedly.

Terra smiled slyly at Ari. "He does the hand thing too. Guess that's where you got it from."

Ari laughed, wrapping her arms around her stomach. "I suppose so."

Hermes was irritated now. "Tell me," he almost ordered, before catching the glare of the much more powerful women in front of him, and finishing with a "please."

Ari shook her head, and simply pointed up. Hermes followed her finger's path to the orange disc in space. It took him a couple seconds, but he got it.

"Helios? _Helios_ is Ouranos' father? But he's a Titan!"

Terra chuckled, shaking her head with a smirk on her lips. "No. Helios is the Titan of the Sun. Not Sol herself."

"Wait," Mercury said, overriding Hermes's mouth for the first time this conversation. "Sol is the Roman side of Helios, is he not?"

Terra's eyes widened, and she whispered to Ari "Man, he really does have a split personality," causing her to giggle.

"No, Mercury," Ari said, lightly shoving Terra's arm, "In their haste to copy the Greeks, the Romans messed up quite a lot of information. For one, any being higher than and including a Primordial can't _have_ different aspects. Their power makes them immune to it. But the Romans didn't care, so many deities had to act like they were slightly different and go under a different name, Helios as Sol included."

Terra chuckled. "I remember those times. Sol was not very happy about that," she chuckled.

Hermes finally realized what they had been saying. "The Sun is alive?" he asked in wonder.

" _She_ is just as alive as I am," Terra said, smiling. She had stressed the gender of Sol there, making it very clear to the Messenger God that it was an important issue.

Hermes looked from the woman in front of him to the Earth spread out below them several times. "Oh, right… you're… _the entire planet,_ " he repeated, not quite believing it.

"Kind of hard to wrap your head around, huh?" Ari asked teasingly.

Hermes just nodded, his headache getting worse.

Terra whistled, then clapped a hand on Ari's shoulder. "I'm amazed you could comprehend your own daughter then."

Ari sent a warning look, but not before Hermes asked about what she had said. "Ari, what does she mean?"

Ari sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Terra, I haven't explained it to him yet."

Terra rubbed the back of her head. "Whoops."

"Please tell me, daughter," Mercury pleaded.

Ari smiled sadly at him, but nodded. "When we're back at the cabin, I will."

Terra smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Ari."

Ari just waved her off, and closed her eyes, recentering herself. "Right, well. Who Ouranos' father is was a trick question. Ouranos doesn't have a father. None of the Primordials do."

"What," was Hermes's only response.

"They have a mother," she continued, gesturing to Terra, who nodded her head.

Hermes' eyes grew wider than dinner plates. "We're related?" he gasped.

Terra smiled at him, a motherly look in her eyes. "Yes. Hermes, Mercury, I am your great, great grandmother."

"And my great, great, _great_ grandmother!" Ari exclaimed, hugging the Planet.

Hermes fainted.

* * *

Ari gave her father an unconscious look of disdain.

Terra sighed. "Looks like we broke him, Ari."

"Not surprised, between the shocking info and your presence," the crimson haired girl said, still watching her father. "And we didn't even tell him about our relation the other way around."

"What will you do now?" Terra asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Probably take him back down to our cabin. Let him sleep, recuperate."

"And what of your purpose on my surface?" the Planet asked.

"I'm assuming you already know why I'm here," Ari guessed.

Terra nodded, crossing her arms. "My children didn't listen. I told Gaea and Tartarus the war would wound me, bringing the attention of higher powers to heal me, but they just told me off. Didn't believe me. 'Go back to sleep, mother,' Gaea said. The nerve," she sighed, eyes downcast. For a few seconds, she remained that way, before looking up at Ari, her irises glowing red. "Do what you have to do, Ari. But please, try to do it peacefully. I'd still like to have some children left when you're done," she pleaded, half joking.

A wounded look crossed Ari's face for a moment, then subsided. She laid her hands on the Planet's shoulders and began to lightly massage the stress away. "Terra, the reason my shell is cloaked is _part_ of the peaceful method. I'm taking it slow, making sure that the custodians that are left in power when I'm done don't need to be replaced."

Terra looked into her eyes, her face relaying her confusion. "Your first plan is a peaceful one? You, the Mighty One? You who tosses systems into the Void when they disagree with you?"

Ari sighed, rubbing the sides of her own arms with her hands, shuddering at the memories of her past self. "I'm... different now, Terra. When mother gave me the command to fix your situation here, she did some major rewiring," she explained, eyes downcast. "I'm a different person now. Much like the demigods on your surface. And every day, I regret the things I did before. This plan, my first peaceful plan, is just one piece in my attempts to repay you for your brother's loss. You deserve this much, and far more."

Terra narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Ari, Planets die. I know this, my siblings know this. Sol knows this. When one of us threatens the safety of the system, those like you must step in. We made peace about this long ago."

Ari shook her head, then placed her hand on the Planet's face. "No, we didn't," she said, before beginning to return the memories her previous self had taken from Terra's mind.

* * *

Terra's eyes widened as memories of reality snapped back into place. Her older brother, the first actual life bearing Planet, orbiting around Sol near her orbit. The civilizations of mortals that brewed on their surfaces, hers much later, eventually intermingling and forming a new species. The gods of their respective pantheons travelling back and forth. The celebrations held with both her and her brother in attendance, in shells of course, laughing heartily. Then the flood, the sense of foreign power overcoming her oceans, drowning all who existed on her surface. Her brother's teary eyes as he begged her to stop, her terrified expression as she found she could not. His eyes widening, the link to his shell snapped, as that same foreign power grabbed hold of his planetary body and flung it into deep space. The echoing cries as he called out to her, asking her why. Her sobbing shell laying underwater for days until the foreign power subsided. The devastation she witnessed across her surface, breaking her spirit. And the cold, orange eyes glowing in their young shell, the face of a girl with crimson hair reaching down to remove the events from her memory...

" **Stop, STOP!** " Terra yelled, shoving Ari off of her. She let go, then stood there, tears streaming down her face. The Planet had no idea why _Ari_ was crying, _her_ brother hadn't been murdered!

Terra _screamed_ , bringing her power to bear against her former friend. Ari just stayed silent as the Planet's shell channeled her power, landing punch after punch on her face. Ari might have been powerful, but so was Terra, and she wasn't pulling her punches. After several hits, the girl's nose broke, dripping silver blood onto the invisible floor. One eye bruised after a solid hit, causing her to cry out in pain despite trying to stifle it. Then Terra delivered a pulse of energy from her surface, vaporizing the skin off the girl's shell in rage. It immediately began reforming, but it hurt. A lot. Ari stumbled to the ground, feeling immensely depressed over what she'd done so long ago.

Finally, Terra seemed done, the stream of rage drying up. She glared at Ari in anger, clearly making the girl dread that their friendship was over. Then to her surprise, the Planet gained a jovial look on her face and chuckled, offering Ari a hand to pull her up.

"You took that like a champ, Ari," she said, watching the girl tentatively accept her hand. Terra hauled Ari to her feet, grinning.

"You don't hate me?" Ari choked out through her sobs, her face silver with blood, even though her wounds had already healed.

"Oh, I _definitely_ hate the previous version of you. With a passion. She deserves death," Terra spat, causing a worried look to cross Ari's face again.

"But you are not her. Punishing you for what she did doesn't make any sense, especially when you're trying to make up for it," she continued. Ari looked relieved.

"So you believe me?" Ari asked, not sobbing anymore.

Terra nodded. "She would never have taken what I just put you through. Chaos, I'd be in deep space right now if even a small amount of her was left in you," she chuckled. "It seems she is dead, so my vengeance has already been fulfilled."

"I guess you're right," Ari agreed, brushing off her suit. By now her eye was back to normal, not a hint that she'd ever been injured anywhere on her body. "Hoping I'm wrong, but I doubt you still consider yourself my friend."

"You are wrong," Terra said with a smile, hoping to get another shocked face out of Ari. It was fun.

"How can you possibly be so reasonable, Terra?" Ari yelled, her sudden mood change taking the Planet by surprise, "I killed your brother!"

Terra's eyes widened. "Ari... Do you blame yourself for what she did?"

"OF COURSE I DO!" Ari screamed, breaking into a sobbing fit once more. "I remember it, the feeling of wrapping my hand around him, chucking him out of the system," she said softly, nearly too quiet to hear. "I remember the screams of horror on both of your surfaces as civilizations met their doom, praying to you both to save them. But you couldn't, because my... my power was overriding your will," she finished, the last sentence barely a whisper.

"Why would your mother leave you with such horrible memories?" Terra asked kindly, pulling the sobbing girl into a hug.

"Probably to remind me of what I can't become," Ari choked out, "Prevent me from going down the same path."

Terra held the girl's shoulders and maneuvered her until they were eye to eye. "Hey, Ari, this version of you and I have been friends for a while. Not a long while, but some time nonetheless. You're a good person. Don't ever doubt that," she said, rubbing Ari's shoulders.

"Too late. I doubt it every day."

"Well stop. You are _Her_ daughter, the Protector of this system, now act like it!" Terra mock commanded.

"Yes, Ms. Fatass, ma'am!" Ari joked back with a salute, giving half a smile despite still having tears in her eyes.

"Miss Fatass? Really, Ari?" Terra chuckled, lightly punching her in the arm with a grin.

"Your butt is _literally_ the size of a planet," Ari replied, withdrawing from the embrace. She moved her hands as if enclosing a beach ball to provide emphasis.

"Maybe your nickname should be Ass of the Universe then," Terra joked back, sticking out her tongue.

"Four and a half billion years old and you still stick out your tongue," Ari scoffed, shaking her head.

"You're a bad influence," Terra chided.

"Can't argue with that," Ari conceded. Then her face grew serious. "You're really okay with me?"

"Water under the bridge, Ari. _Let it rest,_ " Terra commanded.

"Fine," Ari acquiesced. She closed her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, despite their current position in high orbit.

Not that any of the beings standing upon the force field construct needed to breathe at all. Even Hermes and Mercury were immune to that little pitfall of mortality.

When Ari opened her eyes again, all traces of the vulnerable girl she'd just shown to Terra were gone, replaced with a businesslike stare nobody would want to be on the receiving end of.

"Terra, even though I can proceed without doing so, I'd like your blessing to do what is necessary to heal you," Ari requested of the Planet.

Terra regarded her friend for a long few moments. "Swear to me that your solution is peaceful," she finally demanded, a little disturbed by her friend's second sudden shift in demeanor.

Ari had to think about that for a few moments. "I can't guarantee no blood will be spilled," she began, choosing her words carefully, "But this way, the casualties should be kept to a bare minimum. It all depends on the Olympian council and how they react to what's coming. You know, as opposed to Plan B."

Terra cocked her head to the side. "What's Plan B?"

Ari's face drained of color. "Plan B is not happening," she declared.

"Ari, what. Is. Plan. B," Terra pressed, glaring dangerously at her friend.

"You really don't want to know."

"Tell me. I can handle it."

"I'd have to step in completely. Possibly utilize more power than is healthy for you," Ari replied. "Maybe even… _even possess you._ _Again,_ " she choked out in a near whisper.

The Planet felt a sudden headache assault her mind. "You're right. I don't want to know," she grumbled, placing her fingertips on her shell's temples in an attempt to massage away the rapidly spiking pain. The memories Ari had returned to her were bouncing off her mental shields as if taunting her.

 _Is it possible for a Planet to get PTSD?_ Terra wondered. Then she wondered something else. _Wait, what is PTSD?!_

"I warned you. But don't worry. I will do everything in my power to prevent Plan B from being necessary," Ari reassured her. "Plus, I'm not only here to fix upper management," she continued, and held out a hand. With a very loud hum, a sphere of glowing orange light materialized hovering above her palm, with three lines anchored in the air around it, small balls of light rapidly moving along them. It looked a lot like an artistic impression of an atom.

"Is that what I think it is?" Terra gaped, recognizing the device from her long lost civilizations.

"Yes, it is. Normally there's rules about uplifting populations of planets, but Sol is in my domain now, and your mortal children are killing your environment. Thus, all the rules no longer apply here," Ari said.

Terra shuddered. "It's not a nice feeling. A lot like a shell swimming in acid."

Ari nodded, a knowing look in her eyes. "The previous version of me spent time as a Planet on the edge of a black hole for killing your brother, Terra. I know the pain," she began, staring at the device in her hand. "You will not suffer much longer, I promise."

"You plan to offer this to them as a solution?" Terra guessed.

"Yeah."

"And if they refuse?"

Ari's gaze snapped back to the Planet's shell and her orange irises glowed. " **They will not have a choice** ," she snarled.

* * *

Terra said nothing after her outburst, so Ari sighed and unsummoned the ball of light. She moved over to Hermes to check on his health. She hadn't been worried because he was a god, and no matter how hard he hit the invisible ground no damage could have been done. She lightly shook him, testing whether he was unconscious or just asleep. When she pulled up his head to check for breathing, she found it, but his head rolled to the side when she set it back down. _Yup, definitely fainted,_ she thought, shaking her head at her father's antics.

"He's out like a light," Ari announced, not caring whether Terra heard her or not.

"I want to help," came a mumble from where Terra stood.

Turning around, the crimson haired girl looked at the Planet's shell with confusion. "Come again?"

"I want to help," Terra said louder, deepening the shocked look on Ari's face.

"How, Terra? The beings on your surface must be like bacteria to you."

"I wish to walk my surface once more," the Planet replied, gazing down to her planetary body. "I had forgotten the sense of awe that comes from a shell's experience," she breathed out, her face relaxed. "It's quite... humbling."

"I'll take your word for it," Ari said, summoning a flat slab of Forcium which she slid under Hermes. When most of his body was on, it began to hover. "For the record, I always thought you were quite beautiful. Yet another reason why the mortals must wake up."

Terra blushed, cheeks turning golden.

Ari just shook her head. "You know my plan revolves around stealth, right? The presence of a Planet is the polar opposite of stealth," she said, before recognizing the pun. "Heheh, _polar._ "

Terra rolled her eyes at the exceptionally bad puns Ari continually kept making. "Just cloak my shell like you cloaked yours," she reasoned.

"It's not that simple, Terra," Ari sighed, shaking her head. "First off, you look _way_ too mature to be a demigod. Sure, they look good, but not _that_ good," she began, gesturing to the ridiculously curvy body of the Planet, "And secondly, you'd stick out like a sore thumb. When was the last time you visited in your shell? _Over seven hundred years ago_ if I remember correctly. The demigods are steeped in modern culture, of which you have absolutely no knowledge. Plus, one 'Unclaimed' demigod is already enough suspicion, let alone two. And what would you do if you physically met the mortals responsible for damaging you? I'm having a hard enough time keeping myself from teleporting to where they live and killing them outright, much less the being actually hurt by their actions."

"I can easily make my shell resemble human proportions, and just play dumb with the culture until I understand enough to fit in," Terra declared. "And, as much as it pains me so, I will defer to your judgement on the mortals. On the promise that when it is finally time, you leave their fate to me."

Ari nodded. "That's acceptable. And the claiming?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Simple. I'll just claim myself," the Planet huffed, a triumphant look on her face.

"Hate to remind you, but the Olympians just won a war against your daughter. They think Terra is Gaea's Roman aspect," Ari pointed out. "Not to mention even _if_ we somehow convinced everyone otherwise, the half blood daughter of the freaking _Planet_ is going to raise some questions."

"It would help my children be more cooperative when you face them if I was present," Terra pointed out to counter her arguments.

Ari opened her mouth prepared to rebuke that, but found no fuel for doing so. _Damn, she's actually got a point._ "Fine, you're in," Ari conceded, causing Terra's face to break out in glee. "But I'm warning you right now; if you endanger the plan in any way I will dissolve your shell on the spot."

Terra's face became serious again just long enough to accept before her grin returned.

Arin just sighed. " _Four point five billion years,_ " she muttered under her breath, shaking her head, "Glad to see maturity being unrelated to age is provable beyond any doubt."

Terra came bounding up beside her, causing Ari to roll her eyes. Her shell was much less curvy now, her allure brought down to an overly attractive human's level. The robe of water had been replaced by a deep blue knee length dress which hugged her new curves loosely. The halo of clouds had disappeared and her irises had stopped glowing, taking on the same hue as her dress.

Ari pursed her lips and nodded her head in approval. "Not bad. At least you'll look human now," she commented, grabbing the Planet's left hand, "but we've got to do something about your presence."

" _What_ are you going to do?" Terra asked, glancing worriedly at her captured hand.

"Just a high level cloak, don't worry," Ari replied. She placed a finger on the back of the planet's hand, pouring power down the connection as she traced a glowing orange spiral. When she removed her finger, the spiral flashed, and Terra's presence disappeared entirely. Seconds later the orange glow faded, and her hand looked completely normal.

"There we are," Ari said, patting the back of Terra's hand. "I think we can pass you off as a demigod now."

* * *

Terra was just about to ask further questions about this miraculous new cloak her friend had invented when something strange popped up in front of her. An orange square, glowing at the edges, opened up in the empty space before the two beings. The inside held only something resembling random noise. After a moment the interior cleared, giving way to a young woman's face and upper torso. She would have looked normal, just like one of the Planet's human children, if not for the blatantly metallic, jet black skin and glowing orange eyes. They were in fact two inset circles containing overlapping curves of various shades of their primary color. The lines slowly shifted past each other, almost lazily, but Terra had an idea that might change. The woman's hair, a near perfect analogue of the brunette strain of human hair, was in fact made out of millions of thin metallic strands, almost like nanotube strings. It even behaved like hair.

The Planet turned a shocked gaze onto her friend. _Ari, please tell me you didn't..._

"Ari, two demigods are here to see you. They look mad," the woman said. Terra was further shocked by just how _ordinary_ her voice sounded. It seemed the only clue to her true existence was her appearance. She had a sudden hunch that the cloak Ari had applied to her could also make _these_ people look like humans. They were probably what she had created the cloak for in the first place.

Ari rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing. "Let me guess, Annabeth and Percy?"

The woman turned away from them, looking backwards for a moment, before turning back and responding. "Yes, and the female is quite angry."

Terra gave Ari a piercing look that said _What did you do?_

Ari just shrugged and dismissed the metal woman with a wave. "Thanks Iggy, let them in. We'll be back shortly."

She bowed her head and closed her eyes. "Yes Ari. Safe travels," she said, before the orange window in space vanished.

"Who are they?" Terra asked.

"Very important demigods. They were instrumental in Gaea's defeat," Ari explained.

"I _meant_ the _race you created,_ Ari," the Planet clarified.

Her friend's eyes went wide. "Uh… well… you see," she stammered out.

Terra brought her fingers to her nose and pinched the bridge of it. Hard. "How many? Distribution? Technical level?"

Ari reached up behind her head and rubbed the back of it sheepishly. "Trillions. Local cluster. And, uh, they're sentient post-singularity beings, so…," she trailed off.

The Planet gulped. _Trillions? All feeding her?!_ "Are you controllable anymore? Wait, forget _that_ , I doubt you're even _influenceable_ with that much power flowing into you!"

Ari's eyes flared. " **No. And that was the point,** " she declared. " **I will not be modified again. This new me is here to stay, and nobody, not you, not Sol, not Chaos, not even my mother will be capable of changing that. I will** _ **never**_ **revert.** "

Terra stared her down until her eyes lost their glow. "Is your mother aware of them?" she asked tensely.

The girl only shrugged. "Can we change the subject, please? I'm sure they'd be willing to tell you all about themselves. You and I need to focus on you, on your children, much more so than mine."

"Fine," Terra huffed. "But we _will_ be talking about this later." She glared down her friend, daring her to argue.

Ari did nod to indicate her agreement, even if hesitantly.

Terra sighed with relief. "About these demigods; I must meet them and thank them for their role in defeating my daughter," she lamented.

Ari smiled, clearly thankful for the topic shift. "So, your bus or my bus?" she asked.

Terra looked at her sideways for a few seconds before she realized what the crimson haired girl meant. "Oh, uh, your bus. Best keep display of my abilities to a minimum."

Ari chuckled. "Why Terra, you might just be cut out for stealth after all. Though size is not in your favor," she brazenly joked, a smirk on her face.

"Will you ever stop teasing me about that?" Terra glowered, crossing her arms.

"No," Ari laughed, grabbing one of Terra's arms playfully. She laid the other hand down on the metal bed holding Hermes and began to glow silver. In a flash, they were gone.

* * *

 **A/N: Hey! People! I thank you for giving me and my story your time.**

 **-The Depraved Jack:** **Thank you for noticing and helping out with that. Feedback and acknowledgement are nice things to have! There will actually be violence in this story. A lot of it. This is just the warmup stage. It might not be slasher-type violence, more overwhelming power, force of will and flashy abilities, but it is coming. Not all is or will be peaceful on Terra. Insert meme about Winter coming, bleh bleh bleh.**

 **-SJMaas: Thanks for being here. Here's the next chapter! Though if you're reading this, as it's at the bottom, I suppose you already know that :P**

 **P.S. A large thank you to the FanFiction discord. Shoutout to you, PlatonWrites!**


	13. CH13 - Titans

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 13**

 _Titans_

The dark metal door vanished into the floor. To the surprise of both demigods, it flowed into a little crevice between the hallway floor and the interior like water. Annabeth went in, followed closely by Percy. He had Riptide in his hands, in blade form, and was actively scanning around for any kind of threat. Shortly after the two cleared the doorway, the door flowed back into place as if nothing had happened. This made Percy jump a little, high-strung as he was when he felt like he or his friends were in danger.

The room beyond was not remotely like Annabeth expected. The floor was carpeted, and the white painted walls looked just like a normal room in anyone's house. In fact, the door was the only part of the wall that wasn't white, except for two windows on the opposite wall. This did not at all befit Ari, who was clearly an immortal of some kind. They were all about flashy mansions and appearing godly.

Speaking of the girl, she was standing next to a platform of the dark metal which was apparently hovering in midair. Her clothes had slightly changed; she'd added a trenchcoat to her bodysuit made out of the same dark metal. Ari seemed to have a thing for it considering how much stuff she had contained the metal, weird liquidy door included.

On top of the platform a man lay still. His face was not visible unless you were close by. He _seemed_ to be unconscious. The platform was apparently a medical bed or diagnostics forge. Orange panels of light floated in space in front of Ari, displaying all kinds of information. The girl was actively pressing what Annabeth could only guess were buttons, making the main screen in front of her shift through different presentations of data. One screen off to the side even looked an awful lot like a heart monitor. It contained a graph and a line that kept jumping up and down.

Standing next to Ari was a young woman that looked about their age. She wore a dark blue dress with similarly colored hair that extended to her lower back. Unlike her crimson haired companion, she was watching Annabeth and Percy, allowing a full on view of her face. Extremely attractive, to sum her up. But her eyes took the cake, giving Annabeth the feeling that her soul was being leafed through. Her piercing deep blue gaze never wavered from the newcomer's, just staring. She was also smiling in an almost motherly way.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "Hey, Ari. Earth to Ari," she said, instantly causing the unknown woman to smirk. She found that funny for some reason.

Ari jumped a little bit, snapping her head to the newcomers. "Oh, hey guys," she began, but narrowed her eyes at them. She panicked. With almost inhuman speed she rushed over to Annabeth, glancing rapidly between both of her eyes. Then she looked at Percy. Her eyes darted back and forth a couple times.

She cursed.

" _Shit!_ "

Before Annabeth had a chance to speak, the unknown woman did. "What's wrong, Ari?"

"They had a Metacrisis," was her only response, closing her eyes. She rubbed her temples with a grumble. A look of pity crossed the other woman's face, making Annabeth feel very worried. Apparently 'metacrisis' didn't mean something good.

"So you do know what happened to us," Percy cut in, pushing his sword against Ari's neck. "Tell. Us," he threatened.

Annabeth admired his need to protect her, but if Ari was actually a goddess it's not like a sword would do much. She expected the other woman to step in and defend Ari, but she was simply watching as if popcorn would be needed.

Ari opened her eyes when the sword met her throat and rolled them at Percy. "Really Percy, you two must have at least assumed what I am. Do you actually think I can be threatened, much less by a sword?"

"Worked on Ares," Percy growled, not moving an inch.

"Ares is a tool," Ari responded, crossing her arms.

Annabeth chuckled at that, as did the woman. They locked eyes for a moment, recognizing a kindred spirit.

"A tool who accepted an honor duel from a demigod. Powers much larger than he enforced rules he couldn't break. _I_ would simply teleport you into high orbit."

"Stop bantering and spill, Ari," Percy demanded, glaring at her.

Ari just rolled her eyes and walked away from the sword tip, towards a pair of chairs that seemed to be _completely_ made ofthe dark metal the door and her suit also contained.

Percy must have suddenly been too wise to actually attack her, because Annabeth knew even gods couldn't evade his blade if he meant to injure them. She just sighed and put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt at comfort. "Thanks for trying Percy, but like she said, a sword probably isn't the best route here."

Percy looked at her with relief in his eyes and capped Riptide. He hugged her, whispering in her ear. " _I'm not that stupid, Wise Girl._ " His breath tickled, causing her stomach to erupt into butterflies.

Ari called over, rolling her eyes again. "Hey lovebirds, you want an explanation or not?" She was standing next to the two, no, now _five_ chairs arranged in a circle. She was also gesturing to them. It looked like the two chairs that had been there previously had moved to accommodate the others. The unknown woman was sitting in one, left leg crossed over the right and intensely focused on what looked like a physical model of Earth. It was hovering in between her outstretched hands without any kind of thrust or levitation that Annabeth could see, and if it was a hologram it was a damned good one. That raised some alarm bells in her mind, but they had more important matters to attend to.

"You'll just tell us?" the daughter of Athena asked, a little worried. _Nothing comes free in our world, so what's the catch?_

Ari crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She seemed to do that a lot. "The catch, Annabeth, is that this information is going to change your life. The lives of everyone on this planet. Plus, with your Metacrisis, I don't really have a choice anymore."

 _Wait, what?_ Ari had either guessed, or she _could also read minds_. "How did you know what I was thinking?" Annabeth asked suspiciously.

"Well it's not mind reading," she replied with mirth.

"What then?" Annabeth shot back, careful not to think anything consciously.

"Simply put, _you're_ the one doing this. It's mind projection," Ari said.

"What?" Percy asked, confused. Annabeth rolled her eyes and groaned.

"Okay, _you_ clearly haven't read enough comic books," Ari stated, clearly agreeing with Annabeth. "Mind projection is the opposite of mind reading. Instead of taking information from someone's mind, you place it there. Considering Annabeth presumably just gained this ability, I'm not surprised she can't control it."

"Oh," the son of Poseidon relented.

They were still standing, but Ari was impatient, so she sat down in one of the chairs. She waved a hand to two others placed close together, obviously meant for them. "This will take a while to explain, so please sit." Ari smiled, but it was clear that she wasn't asking.

Percy grumbled. Annabeth scowled. Ari narrowed her eyes.

They sat.

Annabeth was surprised to feel that the chairs felt like actual material instead of cold metal. From Percy's look, he was too.

Annabeth glanced over to the empty chair. "Are we expecting someone else?"

Ari rolled her eyes again. "Yes, but she's late," she grumbled. A flick of her hand in the air and a glowing orange rectangle popped into existence. The two demigods in the room nearly jumped out of their chairs.

" _What the Hades is that?!_ " Annabeth shrieked.

The unknown woman grinned at her. "It is merely a communications system. I believe it is much like your…," she trailed off, thinking hard. "Computers? Messages? Ah yes, a video calling system."

Annabeth blushed, embarrassed. "Oh."

Ari coughed. Percy, Annabeth, and the woman all turned their heads to acknowledge her. She raised an eyebrow with a slight grin on her face, a teasing twinkle in her eye that just promised Annabeth she had their reactions on camera, somehow and somewhere. "Can we continue? Or are you going to continue jumping like a scared kitten?" she asked amusedly.

Annabeth leveled her best glare at her, promising retribution if she distributed the no doubt present footage of what they'd done. "Go ahead," she stated flatly.

Percy glanced sideways at her, his massive grin informing her of _exactly_ what he was thinking. "Shut it, Seaweed Brain," she grumbled, her blush only deepening.

Ari grinned and turned back to look at the Inside of the floating orange window. A scene appeared, the static originally present fading. It was some kind of decently lit cave. There were easels practically _everywhere_ covered in paint. They depicted some pretty gruesome images.

Wait, Annabeth knew that cave. _Why would Ari contact Rachel?_

"You'll find out soon," the girl replied.

Annabeth realized she'd just projected again. "This is going to take a while to get used to," she sighed.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "And the control over water doesn't?" he asked incredulously.

"Touche."

"Uh…," Ari spoke up, hesitantly.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow slightly.

"...Annabeth can control water now?" Ari asked, sharing a worried glance with the room's fourth occupant.

"Yes?" Annabeth offered.

Ari and the woman's eyes momentarily locked onto each other.

"Why, is that a problem?" Percy asked.

"It might be," Ari grimly lamented.

"What kind of problem?" Annabeth growled, narrowing her eyes.

"A pretty big one."

Both demigods homed in on her like missiles. " _What?!_ " Annabeth hissed.

Ari opened her mouth to say something more, then apparently thought better of it and shook her head. "You'll find out soon," she said cryptically, turning her gaze back to the window. Apparently she'd dropped the subject.

The video messaging window's view moved through the cave. A small dot of light red resolved from the background of the cave and slowly increased in size, revealing itself to be the long red curls of Rachel's hair. She was painting another scene, but how she was doing it was very odd. She held one paintbrush; _that_ was normal. The thing that definitely was _not_ normal was the _seven others_ that were panting _on their own_. Annabeth wiped her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly. Yep, there were seven extra paintbrushes helping Rachel paint. _Gifts from Apollo, maybe?_

Ari cleared her throat, startling Rachel. She dropped her brush with a squeak, then turned around and glared back through the window. "Don't pop up like that, Ari!" she scolded.

Holding up her hands in surrender, Ari chuckled. "Jeez, don't kill me, sorry. Anyways, you're late. You can come here on your own if you like, but grabbing the hologram will bring you here if you're feeling lazy."

Rachel nodded, and the... hologram, as Ari called it, showed her hands grabbing it.

 _It's not a window, Annabeth,_ the daughter of Athena scolded herself.

The _hologram_ emitted a small hum.

Suddenly Rachel was standing in the room. She had popped out of nowhere. Annabeth knew she had a dumbfounded look on her face, but _Holy Hades_ , that was _instant teleportation!_ Not even a flash like godly travel usually had. _What kind of immortal_ is _Ari?_

"So, who's the first two?" Rachel asked Ari. Apparently she hadn't noticed them yet.

"Annabeth and Percy," Ari responded with a nod, gesturing to them.

Rachel stiffened and turned around awkwardly. "Oh, _hey_ guys!" she squeaked out, trying to keep her tone neutral but failing spectacularly, "Funny meeting you here. Oh, and hello to you as well," she continued, greeting the unknown woman.

Ari sighed again. "They know, Rachel. Or at least they will know after we're done here."

"Oh," Rachel said, instantly relaxing. "Good, because that act was hard to keep up."

Annabeth had recovered from her shock, so she found herself able to speak. "Sorry Rachel, but your act wasn't fooling us."

"Heh," she said meekly, before sitting in the only available chair. "Okay then, let's start."

Ari nodded, gesturing to the unknown woman. "Before we begin, you three need to be introduced to her. Terra, meet Rachel, Percy and Annabeth. You three, meet Terra."

Now Annabeth had submarine klaxons going off in her head. _Terra... Terra... Where do I know that name?_

Percy had a look of dread on his face, apparently having figured it out. If something worried him, it was something _very_ not good.

She'd been projecting again, because Terra replied. "Probably from the Romans, Annabeth," she stated.

It suddenly clicked into place.

Terra, the Roman aspect of Gaea.

 _For Hades' sake!_

"We dispersed you," Percy growled. He was gripping the arms of his chair so hard his knuckles had turned white.

Rachel was yelling at Ari. "Why did you bring her back? After all we had to do to get rid of her?!"

Ari was just rolling her eyes continually.

Annabeth stayed silent, observing the way Terra was acting. She seemed sad, depressed even, looking down at the floor. The daughter of Athena even could have sworn _tears_ were present in the Primordial's eyes. Her shoulders were sagged.

She looked utterly defeated.

Annabeth made a snap decision. "Quiet, Rachel," she commanded, glaring at the Oracle. "Let her speak."

Rachel grumbled, but she shut up. Percy didn't move his gaze from the Primordial. His grip on the chair did get looser, though. Terra shot her a look of gratitude.

"You have the wrong idea about who I am. I'm not Gaea, nor a different aspect," she clarified.

"I'm her mother."

Percy gaped, dumbfounded.

That didn't make sense. Annabeth knew her mythology very well. "Gaea only has a father, and that's Chaos," she said.

Ari broke out in raucous laughter at that. When she could finally articulate anything again, she shot the daughter of Athena an almost manic grin. "Annabeth, that information comes from a civilization that had yet to invent the steam engine. They didn't have a greater grasp of the universe. A lot of beings you know of are actually very different and in different roles entirely."

" _Oh,_ " she mumbled sheepishly.

"So wait," Rachel began, "If Terra isn't Gaea, what is she? Is she another Primordial?"

"Think about my name. What does it mean in English?" Terra asked.

Annabeth knew the answer instantly, but it just made her more confused. "Terra means Earth, but Gaea is the Earth."

Terra chuckled. "No, child. Gaea is Primordial of _earth_. Lowercase E. Rocks, sand, dirt, dust, gravel, and minerals. She has no power over the oceans, the sky, or anything else, except that she had taken over for Pan when he dropped into obscurity," she explained. "I _am_ theEarth. Everything in or upon me, from the center of my core to the edges of my atmosphere, is me."

Annabeth would never admit it to anyone, but at that moment, she let a squeak of fear escape her lips.

Rachel's jaw dropped. "You're the _entire planet_ ," she asked with disbelief.

"Yes," Terra nodded.

"And I'll prove it to you," Ari cut in. She had an incredibly familiar mischievous look in her eyes. Annabeth's eyes almost popped out at how much like a Hermes camper she looked that in that moment.

The girl, deity, or whatever she was, proceeded to pound her foot on the floor a couple of times. Each impact flashed with orange energy. A second later the flashes appeared on Terra's face, with only a millisecond until the woman slapped herself in the face.

The glare she delivered to the crimson haired girl almost made Annabeth lose what little food remained in her stomach from last night's dinner. She finally relaxed when Terra's expression became a pout.

"That stings damn it!" she whined. That was all that was needed before everyone but Terra broke down into fits of laughter, even if Annabeth's was incredibly _nervous_ laughter.

The woman just grumbled until they were done. "You finished?" she asked, glaring at everyone.

"Yes," Ari choked out, tears still in her eyes from the laughing. "Oh gods that never gets old!"

"If you pardon my bluntness, Ari, you don't seem very... hmm, what's the best way to describe it?" Annabeth asked, hesitantly. She was still increasingly on guard given the _Earth herself_ was sitting in a metallic leather armchair _less than five feet from her._

"Godly?" Ari offered, getting a nod of agreement from both Annabeth and Percy. "You have bad examples of divine beings," she answered with a shrug.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Care to expand on that one?"

Ari nodded. "We're not superior to mortals, but a lot of those on Terra act like it. Sure, we have more power, a heightened ability to modify the universe, but that doesn't make us _better_. If anything, the relationship is a lot more like symbiotic mutualism."

"That's when two things depend on one another, right?" Rachel clarified.

"Yeah. Mortals believe in energy beings, sustaining us with what amounts to food, while we protect and guide them," Ari said, before finishing with a growl. "Or at least, that's how it's _supposed_ to be."

The daughter of Athena had picked up on something she could only marginally sense was important, but the gifts she'd inherited from her mother were almost literally _screaming_ at her to raise in conversation. "You said 'energy beings'. What exactly do you mean?" she asked.

Ari took a few seconds to reply, gathering her thoughts. "There's a lot of information about that subject, way more than I'm comfortable imparting to you right now," she began. "However I feel fine giving you the basics. In summary, any being that has what most would call supernatural control over the universe is an energy being, or at least is a hybrid of some kind," she explained.

"The reason half-bloods have some control of their parent's domains, and why you nearly universally look and act like them, is because there is a piece of their energy inside you. The more you have, the more powerful you are. 'Half-blood' is to be taken _literally,_ since you're made up of at least fifty percent your parent's energy."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "That explains so much." Percy nodded his head, while Terra and Rachel just looked bored. _Obviously they have heard this before,_ she thought.

"What you said earlier about how things are supposed to be? How exactly do you know that?" Percy asked, looking interested.

"That's how it works on other worlds," Ari nonchalantly replied.

Everyone except Terra and Ari sucked in a surprised, terse breath.

Rachel's eyes bugged out. " _There are other planets with life?!_ " she almost yelled, getting very excited.

Ari glanced over at her and tilted her head, curiosity and amusement present on her face. "Of _course_ ," she scoffed. "Honestly, the assumption that humans are alone in the universe is preposterous. You place way too much worth on yourselves."

Annabeth felt her heart stop abruptly. The girl hadn't even hesitated to blow away their conceptions of alien life.

"Have youvisited other worlds?" Rachel gasped, looking like she was going to faint at any moment.

Ari looked at her warily. "Yes...?" she responded slowly. "Hell, I've _been_ other worlds."

Annabeth managed to get over her shock enough to ask one of her suddenly thousands of burning questions. "Are _you_ an alien then?"

Looking puzzled, Ari raised an eyebrow at her. "What is your definition of alien?"

"Not born on this planet."

"Fair enough," Ari slightly inclined her head. It wasn't quite a nod, but it communicated her agreement. "Under that definition, I'm an alien. However, the word alien usually means _foreign_. That I am not. Plus, Apollo and Artemis would also fall under that umbrella, and I doubt you consider them alien."

Rachel scratched the back of her head, a sheepish smile on her face. "Well..."

Ari rolled her eyes. " _Okay,_ they may act like it sometimes, but you know what I mean."

Annabeth chuckled, getting Percy to crack a smile. "Apollo and Artemis were still born inside the atmosphere. That's close enough," she retorted, smirking.

Ari glared at her. "I spend a lot of time here on Terra. Enough that I actually own an apartment in California," she explained. " _Technically_ I'm a citizen of nearly every country. Not to mention my parentage."

Before anyone could ask anything else, Terra abruptly gasped. "Why? With the entire universe to explore, why would you stay on me?" Her eyes were wide and she looked shocked to Hades.

Ari smiled kindly, glancing at the three mortals in the room. "Simple, Terra. Amongst the entirety of the cosmos, and all the species that exist, Humans are the race that most embody myself," she revealed.

"Also, I _really_ like bugging you."

Terra crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue.

Annabeth raised her own eyebrows at this. _Why is a Planet sticking out their tongue?_ Out loud, she asked something else. "Care to explain that to us humans?"

"Sure, but don't let it go to your heads," Ari agreed, cracking a huge grin. "Humans are intelligent, passionate, and develop things extremely quickly, for the most part. You tend to never give up, always looking for a solution to a problem. If an obstacle is in your way you lot either tear it down or go around it. Never give up, never surrender, and keep moving forward," she explained. " _That's_ the Human race."

With a sly grin, she continued. "In fact, Annabeth, you're one of the ones I've been called upon by the most. I know you very well, though you know me by another name."

Annabeth was interested even more now. "What name would that be, Ari?"

"Progress," she replied simply.

Annabeth blinked. "What?"

"My mortal name is Ari. But you know that every divine being has a title, yes? When you get to beings higher level than a Primordial, like a Planet or myself, their title becomes a second name for them. I am Progress, while Terra is The Earth," she explained.

Annabeth gaped, realization clicking into place. Of _course_ she knew her. Every technician, engineer, logician, Hades, everyone involved in any kind of science knew her. Whenever Annabeth needed help with anything productive, be it architecture or technology, a little voice in her head had helped her along. Before she'd just assumed it was her subconscious, like everyone did, but now...

"Isn't Progress a domain?" Percy chimed in, interrupting Annabeth's rapid thinking.

"Yes, I am," Progress stated.

"You're a _domain,_ " Rachel repeated the question, extreme disbelief coloring her tone.

"Terra is a domain as well. All domains are actually just higher level beings. Those who have us as their domains tap into our power, provided we let them. It's a bit like regional management on a universal scale. We can't be everywhere at once, you know," Progress explained.

"Oh," Rachel sheepishly relented.

"Well, nice to finally meet you then, Progress," Annabeth said, gathering her wits.

Progress nodded in response, grinning. "Just call me Ari. I hate titles. How's the New Athens project coming along, by the way?" she asked.

Percy turned to Annabeth and mouthed 'New Athens?' with a puzzled but curious expression. She just waved him off before answering Progress', or rather Ari's, question.

"The progress," Ari snorted, Annabeth grinning at the purposeful pun, "is horrible to be honest. I haven't acquired any materials _or_ enough people to build it," she complained, sighing. "I barely even have the plans drawn up."

"Well, I can help with that," Ari chuckled, before extending a hand into the air. A hum rang out, materializing a basketball sized orb of the dark metal. She tossed it to Annabeth, who barely caught it.

"What is this? Also, what is this metal?" Annabeth wondered.

"I call it Forcium," Ari replied, a grin on her face. Obviously there was a joke behind the name. "As for the orb, that is a collection of Forcium nanites capable of building a city. It works just like the one that rebuilt this cabin, only on a much larger scale."

"And you're just giving this to me?" Annabeth asked, suspicious, but she laid it down on the carpeted floor next to her chair regardless.

Ari nodded. "In your world, normally anyways, there are strings attached to everything. Nothing is given for free. That's not how the rest of the universe works. Thankfully, on Terra that is also no longer the case, thanks to a little something I did last night," she smirked.

Rachel's eyes widened at that. "Are you seriously going to tell them?" she asked.

"You _have_ to tell Terra. You and her are bonded now. As for your friends, well, they're likely in a similar boat as yours," Ari replied logically.

Terra looked curious. "Who is this mortal, Ari?"

Ari smirked, but before she could reply Rachel sighed. "I'm not mortal, Terra," she admitted, shooting a an apologetic grimace to Percy and Annabeth.

Percy looked like an idiot with his facial expression and _seriously_ threatened to distract her, but Annabeth could still speak. "You're the Oracle. You have to be mortal," she laughed nervously.

Rachel shook her head. "I'm not the Oracle anymore, Annabeth."

"Well then what are you?" Annabeth asked, throwing up her hands.

Rachel looked over to Ari. "Can I show them?"

"You'll have to show Terra at some point. Might as well," Ari shrugged.

Rachel nodded and sighed, closing her eyes as if preparing herself for something. Nobody spoke a word, everyone but Ari and Rachel herself on the edge of their seats in anticipation. Finally she breathed out. She lightly tapped the back of one of her hands, twice. An orange hologram of a spiral appeared on that hand, faded, and suddenly a godly presence washed over them all. It was extremely powerful. A huge surge of pressure, almost like the atmospheric pressure had increased, slammed into Annabeth. She had to squint her eyes to keep her focus on Rachel. Terra was instantly in tears for some reason, but the daughter of Athena couldn't figure out why. All she knew was that Rachel was definitely _not_ mortal anymore. Thankfully the pressure wave seemed to decrease after the initial exposure of a few seconds. She let out a sigh of relief, and from Percy's nearly identical one, knew she was not the only one to have felt that.

"You see?" Rachel asked, before being crushed in a hug by Terra. Evidently she was not expecting that, since she fell backwards into her chair and started blushing. _Blushing gold,_ Annabeth noticed.

"So, uh, Red... What are you now?" Percy asked sheepishly, using her nickname.

"You're my Fate, aren't you?" Terra interrupted, still crying with what _looked_ like joy.

Rachel nodded before returning the hug. "Yeah. Ari changed some things around," she replied, smiling kindly.

Ari nodded proudly. "I needed Fate's help, so I reassigned it," she casually informed them.

Annabeth was shocked. _Fate? Don't they mean the Fates? What the heck is going on?_

She felt the thoughts leave her head this time, broadcasted to everyone. " _Damn it,_ " she muttered. She needed more practice, but at least she could tell when she was projecting now.

"The Fates and Fate are two different things, Annabeth," Ari replied. "Fate is a domain. An absolutely massive domain, but a domain nonetheless. The Fates were three immortals given that domain here on Terra. Let's just say that The Fates no longer control Fate."

Annabeth's eyes widened, immediately locking in on the former Oracle. "You gave _Rachel_ control over Fate?"

Rachel looked like she wanted to say something, but seemed too awkward to do it after the daughter of Athena's outburst. Ari just looked at her sideways and rolled her eyes. "You'll have to get used to announcing your titles, Rachel. Just do it," she commanded.

Rachel gulped, but complied. "Annabeth, Percy, I'm the, uh," she hesitated, but with an encouraging look from Ari she continued. "I'm the Primordial Goddess of Fate and Prophecy," she finished quickly.

Annabeth saw Percy's jaw drop. She definitely felt her own threaten to do the same.

"Primordial?" Terra asked, raising an eyebrow. "How is that possible, Ari?" she asked, a pointed look pinning the crimson haired girl.

"Well, technically she _is_ your descendant," Ari stated, shrugging. "I just ramped up the amount of your essence in her before conversion."

"Oh," Terra said. "But what of Ananke?"

"You misunderstand. Rachel is of equal power to a primordial, but is not embodying the domain of Fate itself. She's taken on the _role_ of the Fates," Ari corrected.

Terra let out a silent 'Ah', then turned to Rachel, a gigantic smile on her face. "Well, in that case Rachel, I'm pleased to call you my daughter."

Annabeth's mouth followed through on its previous threat.

Rachel raised her hands in a T, disbelief on her face. "Woah, woah, woah, hold on a minute. How am I the suddenly the _daughter_ of the _planet?_ "

"There's nothing sudden about it, Rachel," Ari scoffed. "All the first generation Primordials that you three are familiar with are Terra's children. Every one of them. Gaea, Ouranos, Tartarus, Ananke and the others. There are Primordials for each Planet, and for the most part, they are children of their respective Planet. You have to be in order to be a Primordial with power equal to the first generation, which you have," Ari explained.

"And how, exactly, does that make me Terra's daughter?" Rachel asked, shooting an apologetic look at the Planet. "No offense meant of course, but I have a mother."

Terra laughed a hearty laugh. "None taken, Rachel. You're my daughter only in the physical sense, unless you wish to be more," she explained. Annabeth noticed the yearning look on her face; obviously _she_ wanted more even if Rachel didn't.

"When Ari converted you, it seems she had to increase my essence that was in your own. So in a way, you have two mothers now," Terra finished.

Rachel looked out into space. "Two moms, one mortal and the other the entire planet," she groaned. "Yep, nothing strange about that _at all_. Family reunions are going to get a _whole_ lot more interesting."

"Why is that, Rachel?" Terra asked.

She looked at the Planet sheepishly. "Let's just say you would not like my father."

Terra glanced at Ari for an explanation.

"Rachel's father is one of the mortals pillaging your surface, Terra," she replied.

Terra's face grew dark and she withdrew to her own chair. " _Really_ now?" she glared at Rachel, then shot a deadly look at Ari. "Why would you choose _her_ of all mortals? Are you trying to piss me off?"

Ari snorted. "I'm _always_ trying to piss you off, Terra," she shot back, sticking out her tongue. After a second, however, her face grew serious. "But not this time. Fate requires a mind capable of handling the flow of time, and Rachel was Apollo's Oracle. She was the best candidate I could think of; the other choices were Lamia or Apollo himself. Both are bad choices for many very obvious reasons."

Terra crossed her arms, still glaring daggers at Ari. "I see. But her father is probably on the top ten list of mortals I want to destroy. Why force her into a conflict of interest like that?"

Ari rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "To be fair, I didn't know who her father was until after I did it…," she admitted.

"You didn't check her background first?" Terra asked with exasperation.

"No?" Ari offered.

Terra groaned and sunk down into her chair. "Please tell me you don't support your father's ways," she almost pleaded.

Rachel sighed with relief, given the two powerful deities were done arguing. "I've been trying to change him for most of my life," she told the Planet. "Not that it did any good. To _him_ , I'm just a girl who doesn't know what she's doing."

Terra's expression went back to normal, then took on a determined, angry look. She was about to speak before she glanced over to Ari and saw the look of warning on her face. The Planet sighed, traces of anger fading from her face. She seemed to care about Rachel's opinion a lot, and definitely respected Ari. That or Terra was afraid of her.

 _Probably both, frankly,_ Annabeth decided.

"Well, maybe together we can change his mind," Terra finally said.

"Haha, yeah, that would be an interesting meeting. 'Oh _hey_ Dad! You know the planet you keep destroying? Yeah, she's my mom now and we want to talk to you.'," Rachel laughed.

"An acceptable compromise," Ari chimed in. "We will do that later, and it's probably best if I come along. Both to keep Terra in check, and for the business proposition I have for your father. It will change the world," she said, winking at Terra.

Terra rolled her eyes. "Do the puns ever get old?" she groaned.

"About as old as you!" Ari teased back.

Finally finding her voice, Annabeth wished to clarify something that had been gnawing at her mind the entire conversation. "Ari, you mentioned something called, uh, essence? What exactly is that, and how did Rachel have some to increase?"

"I'll let Terra answer the second question, but the answer to the first you already know. Those pieces of your parent's energy that give you abilities? That is essence."

Annabeth blinked. "You're saying energy beings are made of essence?"

Ari made to speak, but stopped and stroked her chin for a few moments. "Yes and no, I suppose," she finally replied. "Energy beings are not the only things with essence, but we are unique in the fact that what amounts to our body contains a collection of essence. This body is our so-called 'true form'. Essence isn't the only ingredient, but it is there, and a pretty major part. We live a dual existence, one of energy and one of the solid form," Ari explained, gesturing to her body. " _Every_ being in the universe has essence though. I believe humans call it the soul?"

Annabeth's eyes shot wide open. "Percy and I have pieces of our parent's _souls_ inside us?

"That's really not the best way to imagine it, but it works well enough," Ari sighed. "Though you don't have it _inside_ you per say, more a part of your own. Essence is not a parasite, but a building block. It's the same to your souls as water is to your body. The amount of it can vary, sure, but it's vital to a being's continued existence, and helps determine their personality."

"Oh," she said.

Percy hadn't said much and Annabeth was a little worried. She lightly pushed his arm, snapping him out of wherever his mind had gone.

"Hmm?" he asked, all his attention now on her.

"You okay, Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

"Yeah, I was just thinking," he said nonchalantly.

Annabeth tried to keep the surprised look off her face, but Rachel spoiled it. " _You_ were _thinking_!?" she nearly yelled.

"Hey, I think!" Percy shot back with a tone of mock hurt.

"In battle maybe! But you never just sit there and _think_ ," Rachel insisted.

"I do too!" Percy protested.

"Do not," Rachel shook her head.

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"DO TOO!"

"DO NOT!"

"Will both of you shut up!" Ari yelled, throwing up her hands.

Rachel and Percy glared at each other, but they did stop talking. Even if their arms were crossed.

"Thank you," Ari growled, shooting a dark look at them. " _Younglings,_ " she grumbled.

Annabeth took the opportunity to ask her question. "Terra, Ari said you could answer the second question? Uh... about how Rachel had your essence in the first place?"

Terra smiled kindly at her. "Simple, Annabeth. Humans are my children as well, though anyone currently alive is hundreds of millions of generations down the line," she explained. "There might not be much of me in all of you, but it's still there."

"Even Percy and I?" Annabeth asked, pointing at herself and her boyfriend.

Who was still glaring at Rachel. And getting glared back at.

Terra nodded. "However I sense it much more strongly in you two than it should be in your generation. Ari, mind telling me why that is?" she glanced sideways at the crimson haired girl.

"That's actually part of the explanation about what _probably_ happened to you two," Ari said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "However before that, you should learn about my dad."

Annabeth looked over to the man lying on the medical bed. "What's wrong with him?"

A mischievous glint entered Ari's eyes. "Let's just say he's got a bit of a split personality problem. It's being repaired right now."

"Your dad's an Olympian?" Percy asked.

Ari's jaw dropped. "How the _hell_ did you guess that?"

"We've had to deal with Olympian split personalities a lot. That plus you saying that you weren't foreign to Terra and mentioning your parentage meant there was a reasonable amount of certainty one of your parents was an Olympian," Percy elaborated, looking a little shocked at how well he was saying it. "Plus, you get this look in your eye just like certain campers do."

He looked over to Annabeth and grinned. "This is amazing, Annabeth. It's like I can finally understand everything you've been telling me all this time."

"Well, spill Ari, who is it?" Rachel asked, an excited feeling emanating from her.

"Let's make a game out of it. Annabeth, try and guess. I know you want to."

Annabeth didn't even hesitate. Somehow she knew exactly who the god was. Ari's actions, mannerisms, and interactions with Terra throughout this conversation were undoubtedly clues her subconscious had used to figure it out. Given Percy discovering her father was an Olympian, it could only be _one_ being. "Hermes. I recognize that look too. Makes me want to hold onto my wallet."

Ari had just managed to make her mouth close completely when her jaw dropped again. "That wasn't even two seconds!" she cried out, "How the hell are you guys doing this?"

Annabeth and Percy shrugged and looked at each other. "It's like we're both way smarter than Annabeth ever was," Percy said, and she nodded in agreement.

The color drained from Ari's face. "Guys, this is important. Very, incredibly, _extremely_ important, so don't lie. What exactly were you two doing at around twelve midnight last night?"

The blushes on each of their faces and their nervous looks at one another must have given it away. Ari collapsed into her chair, crying out in anguish. "You stupid demigods," she groaned, earning a glare from them. " _Correction: PAST demigods!_ " she muttered.

"What's the problem, Ari?" Rachel asked.

She locked the Primordial with a calculating gaze. "Remember what we did last night, Rachel?"

Annabeth stared at Ari with an accusing look.

"Not like that!" the crimson haired girl spluttered.

"Turning me into a Primordial?" Rachel tried.

Ari shook her head. "No, the _other_ thing."

It looked like Rachel realized what was going on, because she swore. "Oh. Oh _crap._ "

Terra seemed just as lost as Annabeth and Percy were. "Care to explain to those of us who have no idea what's going on?" the Planet asked.

Ari rolled her eyes and replied curtly. "In order to accomplish the job I was sent here to do, I needed two things. One, a Fate that would assist me, and two, a way to hide my power from the Olympians. Technically the second thing required the first thing, but whatever. I came up with a way to do that, but... it required a pretty big change. One these two may not like."

She was right. Annabeth didn't like that answer. "What did you do, Ari?"

"With my help, she turned every demigod on the planet into a minor god," Rachel confessed quickly.

"You did _WHAT?!_ " Percy yelled, instantly on his feet, clenching his fists. He did not look happy.

Annabeth was nearly seeing red. _How could you do that to us?_ she mentally screamed at Ari. She took an unholy amount of pleasure in the wince the incredibly powerful being let slip.

Terra looked shocked and didn't move.

"It gets worse for you two, unfortunately," Ari grimaced, "Though to be fair, that's your own fault."

Percy looked ready to kill her, but Annabeth was still thinking logically. She grabbed his arm and tried to project peaceful thoughts into his head. "Percy, hear her out. Then you can kill her."

"But she did exactly what we turned down the Olympians for _twice!_ " he protested.

"Percy," Annabeth pressed with a deadly tone. Percy gulped, nodded, and sat down. She turned her gaze on Ari, knowing she was glaring daggers right now, and smirked when Ari flinched. Apparently she could make any being scared of her.

"You better have a good explanation or I will let Percy _try_ to kill you," she seethed.

Ari gulped and nodded just like Percy had. "Right, well. Around midnight last night was when I converted everyone. That would have been fine if you two weren't engaged in, well... you know. Nobody would have been the wiser. I would have accomplished my task on Terra, reverted everyone, and left. However, when mortals do that, their bodies combine, right? When immortals do it, their essences combine as well. Usually that's fine, but you were going through the conversion process together, so it seems you blended into each other. My guess is that both of you now have equal amounts of Poseidon, Athena, and your own essences in the other, with the amount of Athena's being boosted to the Poseidon in Percy originally, presumably making you both telepathic, not just Annabeth. It also explains how she can control water. To put that in perspective, Percy was almost a minor god on his own _before_ due to his power level. You've still got your own essence, of course, along with Terra's and, due to being linked with me via the conversion process, mine. Frankly I don't know what that means for you two. This hasn't happened before. Ever," she hastily explained.

Annabeth wiped her hand down her face, still glaring at Ari. "So what does that make us now?"

"Remember, I'm guesstimating all this, so I'm not a hundred percent sure," she cautioned, "But a safe assumption is that you two are now at _least_ on equal power footing with a powerful Titan."

"You're saying that we're Titans?" Percy asked carefully.

"Maybe? Though most likely not," Ari pondered, shrugging. "Titans are a _very_ specific species of energy being. I'd be incredibly surprised if one of you transformed into one, much less both of you. But you two are definitely _some_ kind of immortal being at least on par with the strongest of the Titans."

"But we don't have ichor," Annabeth refuted, disbelief plainly present on her face.

"Oh really? And have either of you checked that assumption today?" Ari smirked, crossing her arms.

"Well... No, actually," Annabeth admitted, less confidently.

Ari sighed. She materialized a Forcium knife in her hand, tossing it to Percy. "Here, be careful, just prick your finger or something."

Percy looked warily at the knife, but he nevertheless grabbed it and lightly pricked the tip of a finger. Blood began pooling up into a bulge, but it was clearly red.

"See?" Annabeth sighed in relief. "Ari was just kidding, Percy."

Ari simply scoffed. "You didn't know Rachel was a goddess when you walked in. Why would either of you be any different?"

Annabeth just pointed to the red blood on Percy's finger.

The deity scowled. "Remember the orange swirl on Rachel's hand? That's a cloak. It hides your presence from the outside world and makes you appear mortal, blood and all. You two should have one on the back of your left hands," she informed them, shaking her head.

Annabeth held up her left hand and examined the back. "I don't see anything," she commented.

"Well it wouldn't be much of a cloak if it was _visible_ , now would it?" Ari shot back irately. "Tap the back of the hand twice."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, but she did it anyways. For a couple of seconds nothing happened, so she smirked at Ari in victory. Then an orange hologram of a swirl appeared on her hand, and she felt... some part of her that she most _definitely_ hadn't possessed before today extend into the world around her. A similar feeling came from Percy, and she looked over just in time to see his swirl disappear. Right on cue the blood on his finger turned into liquid gold. She checked to see if her 'cloak' also disappeared, and it had.

"Definitely Titan level," Ari confirmed with a whistle.

Terra nodded, and Rachel said "Yep!"

"Percy, give me the knife," Annabeth demanded, holding out a hand. Percy seemed lost in thought, shock on his face as he stared at the ichor, his ichor, sitting on his finger innocently. Shifting, she grabbed the knife from him and gently pricked her finger, resulting in another pearl of liquid gold. She sat stock still staring at it's irrefutable presence.

"We're _immortals,_ Percy," Annabeth whispered to him. He gulped, his eyes relaying his shock.

"Yeah, we already established that," Ari said, her voice sounding confused.

"Turn us back," Annabeth demanded.

"Can't," Ari said, prompting Annabeth to draw her own dagger and point both of them at the deity. The crimson haired girl held up her hands in surrender, though Annabeth knew it was just to make her relax. "I didn't say I won't, I said I _can't_. Weren't you listening? You have major pieces of your essence, your _souls,_ inside each other. It's like an empathy link on every performance enhancing drug in existence. I start messing with that, you both die. Not just fade as the immortals you are would, flat out _die_. Cease to exist. No Underworld, no Tartarus, _nothing_. Thus, I can't."

"And how do you know that for sure?" Annabeth pressed. "You said this has never happened before."

"Two beings having relations with one another during a conversion process, no," Ari clarified, "Two or more beings blending their essences? All the freaking time. It gets super annoying very fast."

Suddenly a thought occurred to Annabeth, turning her heart cold with fear. She put away her daggers, declining to give the Forcium one back. "Percy, what about our kids?"

Percy's eyes widened. That seemed to snap him out of his shock. Turning his gaze on Ari, he spoke in a _very_ dangerous tone. "They had better be okay," he seethed.

Ari just scoffed, waving him off with her hands. "Of course they're okay. Energy beings can have kids too, you know. Hell, your parents are proof of that."

"Kronos and Rhea didn't get transformed into Titans though," Annabeth responded.

"Neither did you," Ari pointed out. This got her a death glare from the couple. Rolling her eyes, she stood up. " _Fine, fine, I'll_ check. _Don't get your panties in a twist_ ," she muttered. She crossed her arms and stared straight at Annabeth's stomach. It made the daughter of Athena uncomfortable, but the awkward staring only lasted a few seconds.

Sighing, the girl ran a hand through her crimson hair. " _Great. Just_ peachy. _Oh man you've done it now, Ari!_ " she muttered.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Ari turned her head back to her, a look of pity on her face. "You want the good news or the bad news?"

Percy was about to say something, but Annabeth cut him off. "Good news first!" she almost yelled.

Ari nodded. "Your kids are fine, the pregnancy looks to be proceeding."

Annabeth realized she'd been holding her breath, so she let it out. "And the bad news?"

"I've got three pieces of 'bad news'," Ari said making air quotes. "Two may actually be good news depending on where you two stand on your new existence."

The couple motioned for her to continue, Rachel and Terra on the edge of their seats.

"Alright," Ari sighed, gearing herself up for what was about to be said. "First _possible_ piece of good news; you've got four of them now."

Everyone's jaw dropped, Annabeth excluded. "F... _Four?!_ " she barely heard herself squeak out.

"Yeah, quadruplets," Ari confirmed.

Annabeth groaned. _I am not looking forward to giving birth._

"Oh, don't worry about that, Annabeth. Energy beings don't give birth. Once your children are fully developed, they simply detach from your true form as fully grown beings," Ari assured her. "Though a lot of them like to take on the guise of children for a while for some reason," she added on, almost absentmindedly.

Annabeth let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "That's good news," she said, visibly relaxing.

"That may or may not be lessened by the second thing. This pregnancy looks to be four times shorter than a normal one, human or immortal," Ari continued.

Annabeth, Rachel, and Terra stared at her with disbelief. Percy said it for all of them. " _What._ "

"How?" Rachel spoke up. "Is this a Titan thing?"

Ari shook her head. "Likely a side effect of the Metacrisis. And for the last time, they're _not_ Titans!"

"And the third?" Percy asked. Annabeth was dreading what could make 'You're having four kids!' and 'You're having them four times faster!' seem like good news.

"Well, that's the thing I doubt you'll be very excited to hear," Ari admitted. She drew in a suspiciously deep breath.

 _Uh oh,_ Annabeth thought.

"All four of your kids appear to be full, Olympian Big Three-level gods. Or goddesses. Can't _quite_ tell which yet."

Annabeth fainted.

* * *

 **A/N: Whew! _Lots_ of exposition in this one. I hope that it was delivered in a way that seemed organic and didn't trigger someone's "ugh, TMI!" alarm. It sucks when I come across that as a reader, so my goal was to not do it. Still, all of this was necessary.**

 **Just in case anyone thinks Annabeth being pregnant is a problem, keep in mind they're like... 20 or so at the moment. They're going to college, and as Demigods, it's important to start a family early due to low life expectancy. Percy and the Seven's actions have raised that a lot, yes, but it is still an issue.**

 **-SJMaas: Thanks for sticking around.**

 **-PJDarkstone: Hey there! Welcome. Thanks for the kind words. Update is here!**


	14. CH14 - Rumors

Energy Unbound

 **Chapter 14**

 _Rumors_

The Underworld.

A wretched hive of scum, villainy, and the occasional hero or unusual mortal destined for Elysium.

Vast plains of dark rock only interrupted by the four star attractions. Five, if you counted the entrance. The hellish red haze that obscured the Fields of Punishment from view, the near literal glow the Elysians put off, the dark hole leading to the most literal analogue to the Abrahamic Hell ever created, and the Palace of the Underworld.

Lord Hades' home.

Modeled off the Council Temple of Olympus, only about three times bigger, it was Hades' way to snub his nose at those who had shunned him. His 'family', who except for a rare few, all hated him and had banished him from their pristine, if false, paradise.

It still surprised him how much he'd grown to like his nephew, one Percy Jackson. If he didn't know better, he'd assume the young man's mother to be a goddess herself. As for his father? Well, ever since Jackson had given Hades' brother a wicked tongue-lashing, the Lord of the Seas and the Lord of the Underworld had developed something that _could_ be called a sibling relationship.

If you squinted.

Of course there was always his sister. The one he would tear the Underworld open for, the one he'd do pretty much anything to save.

Hestia. The only one who _truly_ knew him, in every way. They'd been closer than lovers, once, a long time ago… so many millennia in the past. He would have made her very happy, and she him.

Hades shook his head to clear his thoughts of her. His idle musing about his family and his lot in life were not the primary focus of the god's day. Oh no, his ire was firmly emplaced upon a pair of tricksters.

 _Chaos damn Hermes and Apollo._

His Palace was not supposed to be _pink!_

A cacophony of bones rang out in the still silence of his Throne Room. One of his minions had fallen off the scaffolding of bone he'd provided them for the repaint job.

It turns out that undead armies aren't that good at painting.

" **Fail in this task one more time,** " he bellowed, forcing his voice to cascade across the Underworld, " **and see how long it takes you to** _ **reform!**_ "

The multitude of skeletal soldiers sped up their efforts. The fallen one ran from the Throne Room, joining up with his comrades elsewhere in the Palace. Hades leaned back in his throne and grinned. He let his body relax slightly, connecting to his domains in an attempt to calm down.

It wouldn't work. It never did. It didn't then, either.

But something else was lightly brushing against his senses. It was enough to distract him from his anger. His mind, ever alert as the eldest son of Kronos by nature was, sought out the flicker in his personal darkness.

It was abnormal.

Every god or goddess who knew anything was aware of just what that might mean. There were very few things that could intrude on the mind of an immortal being when they were connected to their domain like he was. A more powerful being, though the difference had to be vast. An error of his own mind, perhaps a new aspect forming. Given no major civilizations had fallen recently it was more likely a minor dispute between his Roman and Greek children, though he was unaware of any reason Hazel and Nico might be fighting.

The last one that applied normally was impossible. He had no immortal heir.

Hestia could in theory contact him this way, as he had given her access and she had responded in kind. But this did not feel like his sister. What would be the point, anyways? She was welcome in his domain at any time she wished. He even kept a Hearth of his own burning through the endless eons specifically for her.

It couldn't be a more powerful being. He would have noticed them arriving on their world. Celestials did _not_ accomplish subtlety. Hades would be surprised if they even knew what that word meant.

If it was not Hestia, and was not a higher being of the needed caliber, it _might_ be a fight between his children, however unlikely it was. They were very young adults now, after all. With an absent thought his mind pinged the essences of his progeny. Just in case. Only to check.

Despite what most beings thought of him, he _did_ care.

Abruptly his eyes shot wide open. His ichor stopped flowing, ice crawling through his veins.

 _Impossible!_ he raged.

Normally when he performed the checkup of his children, their divine essences sent back only small echoes of his own power. It would be flavored depending on which of them replied; structured and orderly for Hazel, chaotic and depressed for Nico.

But no matter what it would be weak.

The response he'd just received was anything _but_.

His anger, fear, and surprise exploded out across the Underworld. The power unleashed decimated the rocky ground of the massive cavern, eventually escaping up to the surface and setting off a series of massive earthquakes. Los Angeles would be shaking for a while, despite Hades quickly reigning in the outflow of his energy.

The Lord of the Dead did not apologize. He might be feeling something akin to what mortals described as 'whoops' at that moment, though.

His earlier assumption that he had no immortal heir was apparently _very_ incorrect. How?!

 _How_ did his two children, without him noticing, become a minor god and goddess overnight?!

And why did their responses carry a small hint of unrelenting, all-encompassing power?

Hades' face paled even more than the usual alabaster white he decided his skin should be. There was only one kind of being capable of this. Either his great grandmother had woken up, or one of the Celestials was on Terra.

And they'd affected his own blood. Immensely powerful, unbeatable being or not; _THEY WILL PAY!_

* * *

The Pit smiled.

His mother was awake. She walked her surface again. Even as far down in her crust as his true body resided, he could feel her energies begin to cycle up to consciousness once more.

Huh. It looked like his grand nephew was having a temper tantrum far above him.

Odd.

An errant thought sent his minions to prepare his mother's chambers in his Fortress. A Titan and a Giant, both who'd expected death for their actions against him. Their shock when he began laughing out loud after the mortals had escaped would be a memory he treasured for the rest of his existence.

His sister was insane. All of them knew it. If he hadn't stepped in to 'help', but in reality limit her and her ambitions, the mortal civilizations would probably be gone now. To be fair, it _was_ their own fault. They'd poisoned her, and over the eons of her sleep it had weakened her mind. Their mother staying out of it, not coming into the mortal scope of thought, certainly hadn't helped.

Not that the Pit could blame her. He felt their poison on his outer shell as they tried to dig for what they amusingly called 'black gold', shoving torrents of acidic liquid down their wells in an attempt to crack what the Mist told them was bedrock. It would feel like burning wounds to his mother.

Even as he thought of it, another flood broke open the layers of sediment around him. He had to restrain himself every day, every second, or he would kill them all. Unleash the gates of the most literal version of Hell and drown them in tides of monsters.

Tartarus was a treacherous bastard. He knew it. Everyone thought it. But he wouldn't betray his mother. She had a protection order on her mortal children. After the Flood, she wouldn't tolerate any harm befalling them from his siblings.

Didn't keep him from sometimes letting certain weak monsters escape him, though. They only targeted children of his grandchildren anyways. Anyone who hadn't learned that lesson was not allowed out to play.

Like he always told everyone; he was a bastard. Not in the method of birth. His attitude and behavior were what declared him as such.

Nobody had the balls to call him on it, though.

Except a certain young mortal, one he'd been keeping an eye on ever since he'd 'escaped' on the elevator of the Doors of Death.

Jackson had impressed him. He could admit that. The boy fought his, admittedly weakened, avatar to a standstill. So what if he had a Titan, a Giant, and another mortal for aid? He'd fought Tartarus _inside his own body_ and escaped.

The boy had guts. He could see why he'd challenge Ares and mouth off to Zeus' face without fear. Why he'd even talk back to the _literal_ embodiment of Hell itself. It was why he'd gifted a small amount of his own power to Jackson, just to see what he could do with it.

Tartarus was dangerous when bored.

Due to this monitoring, he was aware of the change the boy and his mate underwent. One day he was skirting godhood, she following closely behind. The next they registered as something like his own children.

What brought that change on? Ah. _**She**_ _is here_. The fact they weren't currently in deep space, nor did he sense a world-spanning aura of power, meant that he could reasonably assume she wasn't here to do something… bad for all involved.

Not like she'd done to his mother's brother. Even now that stung. He was the only one who knew. She'd forgotten him in her memory modification sweep, secreted away as he was towards the Planet's core.

 _Bah,_ he scoffed, _nobody liked Nibiru anyways._

Tartarus was amused at the situation. The potential for chaos had just risen immensely. How interesting. He was not sitting on a small fragment of a Chaos Shard for nothing, after all. He would do nothing, alert no one, to this change.

He would however require popcorn. "Bob! Damasen! We have a new show to watch! Popcorn, on the double!"

* * *

 _Oh no,_ Nox thought.

Tartarus was amused.

The Lady of Night shuddered. Her brother could be downright _terrifying_ when he found an object for his attentions. Secluded as she was in the glorified guardhouse for the Chaos Shard, her Palace of the Night, she was technically immune from his manipulations and games.

Unless he found another couple of demigods to tease her with by directing them _into_ the Palace, that is.

Even after all these years she still couldn't figure it out. How had they survived? Mortals should simply dissolve into the Void upon entering her presence.

But Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena, hadn't even _noticed._

Her brother had confirmed he had nothing to do with their immunity. He made sure they didn't die in his own body. He had no control over her manifestation.

And as amusing as her reactions to his bullshit normally were, he wouldn't risk infringing upon her domain. Deities usually just flat out faded when they broke Oaths like the one they'd taken.

So how?

Like her brother, she'd tracked Jackson. A tiny bit of her own essence imbued into his own. Not quite a blessing, but enough so that he need not fear the darkness. He never noticed it, but he could navigate through dark rooms and on moonless nights without much trouble. He could even see better in the dark. Not by much. Just enough.

And of course, she could watch him and his girlfriend through it.

So when she sensed the Pit become amused and figured out it was because of Jackson, she briefly touched that fragment of herself with her mind.

Aaand promptly lit on fire.

"AHH!" she screamed, running out of her throne room. The black flames leaped from her body and ignited the air that filled the hallways of the Palace. In what felt like a single moment the entirety of the internal space was aflame.

It wouldn't actually do any damage but it was going to be a bitch to clean up later.

 _Focus, you imbecile!_ Nox scolded herself. Get the flames off first, deal with the vacuum that had followed the burning air later.

She made it to her personal bedroom in the Palace and waved a bath into existence. The water was cold and dark, but it would do. Nox flung herself into the cooling waters and sighed with relief.

"What the Chaos was that?!" she shrieked out loud.

A cursory examination of her memories showed the answer. She'd contacted the piece of herself in Jackson with her shields down, and without the protection of her Domain Throne. Somehow an immense amount of raw energy was unleashed from the shard and backtracked along the connection, manifesting as incredibly hot fire, enough to ignite the limited Oxygen in the air of her Palace.

That could really only mean one thing. _How the_ Chaos _is Jackson a deity?!_

* * *

Sol was bored.

So, so bored.

She absentmindedly twirled two flares of her own matter around on her surface to produce a darker spot in the shape of a puppy. See how those scientists on Terra reacted to _that._

Ugh. SO BORED!

She contemplated reversing her spin just to see if anyone would notice. Of course, that might take a few years to actually travel outward to her surface, so it wouldn't do anything for her boredom _now._

Life was so much easier when she was an adult. She wasn't really ever truly bored then.

But being a kid was so _fun!_

Somewhere in the remnants of her true self she snorted at her own consciousness. The minds of higher beings like herself were always some kind of gestalt. Their existences were too vast for _one_ sentience, after all, even if most of them acted like they were singular consciousnesses.

So it was that her older self was on standby and her younger self was currently 'her'.

Bah! Enough philosophical stuff, she was _bored!_

Ooh! Maybe she could go poke Enlil again! No… He'd probably be angry at her for making his Red Spot worse.

It was an accident! Come on, it was her _birthday._ How was she supposed to know the coronal ejection she used to blow out her asteroid candles would cause a giant storm in his atmosphere?

Bored bored bored bored _so bored_.

Wait, what was that?

Her eyes widened in surprise and she squealed with glee. Her daughter was waking up again! Terra was back! They could have so much fun together messing with her children. It'd been so _long_ since she got to play with a civilization on any real level. Ever since Nimrod… no, Nemo? What the heck did she name him?

Oh yeah, Nibiru.

Ever since _Nibiru_ decided to be a poopy head and blow up Ia. Poor little Ia. Or as Terra's little ones called her hypothetical existence, Phaeton.

They weren't to blame. They wouldn't have any idea of her gender after all.

Ia, her little one who went way too close to the orbit of Nibiru and Enlil.

It wasn't really Enlil's fault. Sol loved all her children, but Nibiru… she must have done something wrong with him. He was one of the first, after all, and she was a rather new star. Nobody in the local group would help her out in her attempts. They were all _way_ too snooty for her liking.

She couldn't bring herself to end him even after that. Thankfully, Progress had come to her aid, saved the soul of her little one, and exiled Nibiru from her system. He would drift through space for a long time before coming back.

Hopefully he got the memo this time. And Terra wouldn't ask her to hide her true self from her mortals anymore, so she could give Ia a new body!

After all, her stasis chamber, Ceres, was starting to become sentient herself. It wouldn't be long before they merged or she was forced to move Ia's soul into herself to protect it.

Hey, is that Ouranos calling her?

It _is!_

OOOH, MOVIE MONTH!

Yes yes yes yes _yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!_

* * *

The Sky chuckled.

It was always entertaining for him, the antics of those so far below. Up here where the atmosphere was thin sat his City, the bastion of his power and the Guardian of his Planet.

Unlike all those entities, gods, and primordials who dealt with the chaotic miasma that was the surface of Terra and below it, he was _free._

Yes he had to do negotiations with the other Planets, acting in lieu of his sleeping mother, and had to put up with the chattering of Sol herself. He had to redirect or absorb her never ending waves of energy and dangerous radiation to protect those below.

But he was _free._ And Sol was actually quite fun to talk to. In her current incarnation, anyways.

Nothing like Luna, with her reserved regality and aloofness. They had tea every day; he was used to her… peculiarities. Without fail, ever since he'd been 'killed' by his son, when Luna's true body came out from behind his mother's shadow her avatar would appear in his City's gardens. He usually made the appointed tea time, provided Sol hadn't burped and launched an ejection their way that day.

Regardless of his musing, events on the surface had begun heating up. He wasn't actually sure _what_ was going on, but his brother Tartarus was amused, Nox terrified and the Underworld's current owner was flipping his shit. Something big was going down, hiding itself extremely well, and was enough to interest the Pit.

He barely controlled his laugh of joy. Normality was so _boring!_ It was about time for some kind of adventure to begin! The previous 'wars', and he chuckled at how his children and grandchildren thought such things were worthy of the word, were mildly fun to watch. But whatever was happening now? This, _this_ is what he commissioned that five hundred inch plasma screen TV for. It was perfect for viewing from his Throne at full size and he had a _unique_ perspective on the world to feed to the screen.

So what if it was technically him watching himself? Movie theaters, television, and entertainment were some of the _important_ things in life. He could ignore the fact he could see everything on the screen anyways just for the experience of his own home theater.

Whatever was happening, it had all the pantheons across the world aware of it at some level. Even if only a couple of seers saw the incoming blips in the timelines, or as with his children's side of things, were completely ignorant save a few, _everyone_ was involved. There were several 'dead' pantheons that had completely flipped out and were scrambling to meet for emergency discussions.

His eyes widened as a pulse from the surface swept through his City. His _mother_ had decided to wake up! Oh this _definitely_ meant something.

"Luna, Sol," Ouranos called out into the star system, "It appears we'll be having another movie month."

Sol popped into existence in his Throne Room with a flash of coronal fire. She took the form of a young girl these days, reflecting her current 'mood'. Orange haired, of course, and her eyes had a representation of her true self instead of irises. Her hair flowed around in the low gravity of their high orbit of his mother as she bounced up onto his Throne besides him, which he'd only just in time turned into a rather comfortable couch. He summoned popcorn out of thin air, literally, and handed the little star a container of the stuff.

Luna appeared next to him with grace and poise in a flash of gray light. She accepted his offer of popcorn daintily, placing it on her lap and nibbling the popcorn pieces individually.

"Come on Ouranos, I wanna watch!" Sol pleaded.

Ouranos sighed and ruffled her hair. "Sure thing little one."

The TV blinked on, and they watched.

* * *

 **A/N: Apologies for the update time. My buffer has unfortunately run out so I am writing live now. Here's the next chapter. After this there's one or two more ramp up chapters before everything _really_ hits the fan.**

 **For those who are unaware of ancient or modern astronomy or mythology;**

 **Enlil = Jupiter**

 **Nibiru = Planet 10, Planet X, whatever. In my story it's a planet wiped from memory or has had memories of it edited by Progress. Astronomers recently discovered the planet I'm using for Nibiru out in the Kuiper Belt. It's apparently known as Eris, but given Eris actually exists as a separate entity in my 'verse, I'm taking the conspiracy nutcases' name out for a drive. I can always handwave it and say humans have no clue of the real structure of things. It's a nice bit of handwavium.**

 **Ia = random Babylonian female name. Ceres is a dwarf moon in the Asteroid Belt. The planet I'm naming Ia, which was named Phaeton by modern astronomers, was a hypothetical planet between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. It was ripped apart by Jupiter's gravity to form the Asteroid Belt. In my history, Nibiru was between Mars and Ia, and is responsible for Ia's death. Just how that happened is spoilers though.**

 **Ouranos = Greek primordial of the Sky**

 **Luna = Roman name for the Goddess of the Moon. Not Artemis, the _actual_ moon goddess.**

 **Sol = Norse name for the Sun Goddess. It has these little weird dot things on top of the o in formal writing but I'm too lazy to hit the unicode for that a couple dozen times.**


End file.
